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Regular Cube
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The previous update changed a bunch of cards but didn't have a huge impact on gameplay. I swapped a bunch of lands. Removed some notable power outliers I'd seen enough of: Legolas, Master Archer, Feldon, Ronom Excavator, and Earthshaker Khenra. And swapped a few fairly replaceable cards.

I was excited to add Eutropia the Twice-Favored. It's a card I enjoyed playing in limited and has always seemed perfect in terms of power, complexity, and gameplay, but not so much on theme. Since I've been pushing the Curiosity theme though, suddenly it makes a lot of sense. Attaching a Leap to your Curiosity is a cool plan. Although there isn't a huge enchantment theme, I think there's just enough incidentally to bring the card up to rate with a little bit of work. I'll look to add a few more depending on how things play.

After the last Cube Con, blue clearly lagged a bit behind. This is a small change that hopefully powers it up a bit. Mischievous Mystic is going to be very strong here, probably one of the best blue cards. Refute and Elementalist Adept and perfect, clean, serviceable cards over some that often end up in sideboards. Someone said people should put Jace Beleren in a cube and after some thought it seems like a good fit. Super simple but takes some work to get value out of since it doesn't protect itself. Seal of Removal is another enchantment for Eutropia that hopefully is another useful tool for the small Ninja theme.

Watcher for Tomorrow is a card that's been in the cube since it's inception. I like the card but looking for cuts it stood out. The fact that it enters tapped is easy to forget, hideaway is a little fiddly and takes time, and it just doesn't really play into many themes.

Lilypad Village was literally a mistake. I was making last minute changes before CubeCon, grabbing surveil lands with a search and plugging them into my bulk order, and didn't notice until after the CubeCon list lock. oooops! Sorry to anyone who copied the list and has this weirdo, do nothing land in it!

I expect to make bigger changes from Wilds of Eldraine but in light of not being able to do any play testing before Cube Con, I'm being very cautions and just making a few changes.

I'm cutting Bannerhide Krushok and Wren's Run Hydra for being modal spells that don't work with some of the new additions, including Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief. I was hoping for more adventure combat tricks in green that were appropriate but just Intreped Trufflesnout seems reasonable. I'm also adding Audacity the "fixed" Rancor I meant to add earlier.

Cooped Up is a nice replacement for Pacifism. The modality means it can still deal with some important threats at a worse rate. And Pacifism has felt a bit under rate. The cost is a loss of perfect flavor and simplicity.

Threadbind Clique is also a nice alternative (and big power boost) too Farm // Marker which hasn't been exciting. Getting rid of Aftermath is probably a good thing. The biggest downside might be Rip the Seams not being played in non-blue white decks.

I plan to at least try all the WOE creature lands but I don't want to add them without playtesting before the con. I think most will be reasonable long term, but the volume could be an issue. Thinking about it in the last draft, creature lands were relevant often, at least in one game a match it felt. I think that's a rate I'm pretty happy with and don't want to accidentally make them too much of a presence. I'll also try Elusive Otter when I'm not having to lock in the list.

It's been a while since I've updated this Cube and I've had some changes piling up. Despite this being a large update, I don't expect this to have a huge impact on gameplay.

Many of these updates were discussed in episode 148 of Lucky Paper Radio a little while back.

The three big focuses are: cutting some cards that have been mainstays that have just been played enough, experimenting with Blue-Green, and finally a bunch of little changes to existing themes.

Substantial Cuts

Feather, the Redeemed is a card that's been in the Cube for a long while and we've talked about too much. It was finally an appealing enough reason to get people in Red-White. I don't think the card is necessarily over powered, and is demanding enough that it doesn't show up too often to be frustrating, but still it may have just showed up enough and it's time to try something different. The kicker here is just the raw efficiency. Playing against it and losing to a 3 mana 3/4 flyer when a player isn't even 'doing the thing' is the best gameplay, and frankly, neither is having the same spell thrown at you turn after turn.

Along similar lines, Oketra's Monument was a unique combo-ish card (combined with Whitemane Lion and similar) that stood out in the environment. Initially I wanted to encourage the Lions into decks and I liked having something unique to aim for that would come together occasionally that wasn't an full combo that would win on the spot. Over time, it's stood out a bit too much and the repetitive gameplay has outweighed it's role as a fun side quest.

Rancor has always looked like a power outlier, but only more recently that very proactive Green Red and Green White decks have been more effective has it felt like one too. It loses points for being non-committal and big points for repetitive play that's hard to interact with.

Soulherder is an even bigger perpetrator of repetitive gameplay. It reads like a fun engine, but in practice players end up blinking the same thing every turn. It also grows out of the range of much of the removal in a couple turns making it not the most fun.

Plague Engineer may be more of a minor adjustment than strategy shifting change. The card is a good bit over powered for this environment, but has stayed in for this long on the back of my thinking it scales ok with the context and liking some cards that are good when you're behind. As the Cube has evolved I think it's gotten more powerful (there are more cheap creatures it kills) and players are sometimes frustrated by it. Lingering Souls, Whirler Rogue, Restoration Angel, Kari Zev, and a few other cards are all also getting cut for similar reasons. They don't nudge you in any particular direction, but are just above rate. Players feel foced to take them over something more focused on their plan.

Blue and Blue-Green

Blue has historically been the weakest and least exciting color and it's pair with Green even more underwhelming. Overall I don't think this is a huge issue. Blue-Green hasn't been played that often, and there's still plenty to do in the Cube. But giving the color, and pair, a bit more identity.

I'm trying a new theme in Blue in two parts: more smaller, evasive creatures, and a handful of curiosity effects. On it's own, Blue being more about evasive creatures feels natural and more focused in a creature-centric environment. The curiosity effects obviously work well with those creatures but also touch on heroic and spells matter themes in other colors. A few extra signpost cards in Ivy, Gleeful Spelltheif and Vedalken Heretic point Simic in that direction specifically. I've also added Silverfur Partisan and Legolas, Master Archer to bolster the theme even more. I'm a little bit skeptical of these two. Legolas might end up being too powerful, especially in Green-Red, and the partisan could end up being frustrating to play against, being triggered by opponent's spells. I'm curious to see how these play out.

Other Tweaks

I've also made a slew of other tweaks. I've swapped a few removal spells around. Bound in Gold has been an unappealing option and it's a little heavy on enchantment based removal. Divine Arrow also rarely gets played. Elspeth's Smite is a solid, much more efficient option. Legion's Landing is coming out for simplicity. It's a complex card with a unique token and our distance from it's release makes it's complexity feel heavier. I'm happy to get down to zero double faced cards.

In addition to more targeted changes in Blue, I'm finally swapping Facet Reader out for Merfolk Looter. Looter seems very good, but people just don't play Facet Reader. While I'm adding Looter il-Kor to wear pants, it feels reasonable. Archfiend of Ifnir gets a bit stronger.

Mythos of Nethroi has kind of always annoyed me. I kind of want a 1 black pip Murder but this has too much else going on. A few new Black removal spells are coming in. Phyrexian Tower was something I added very speculatively and it lasted quite a while. Overall I don't think it's too unreasonable and i like seeing an iconic old card recontextualized. But it did create some salt now and then and bolsters an over supported strategy. The Eldest Reborn feels clunkier and clunkier with the low curve and prevelance of tokens. Plague Spitter is a speculative inclusion sort of adjacent to Plague Engineer. It has some interesting interactions in Green-Black, and I like more ways to push back against tokens, but it could end up being frustrating. Toshiro Umezawa is speculative as well. My guess is it'll be a bit oppressive, but does something a little different with what Black is doing and has a nice mini-game aspect to it.

In Red, I'm trimming down on some of the spell payoffs just a bit and other generic good cards. Also some bad cards.

In Green, some cards I've been meaning to include like Cankerbloom and Chomping Kavu are coming in along with Green's color shifted curiosity.

Finally in Gold, some other nebulous cards like Mystic Snake, Coiling Oracle, and Mina and Denn are coming out. I've been looking for something that gives Black-Red slightly different options and Terminal Agony has been a maybe for a long time. Madness is still not very supported so I'm curious if it plays. With more looters, maybe Grixis madness starts becoming a minor theme. I've also added Mask of Memory to give a little more madness support and card filtering to support and reward suiting up evasive creatures. While we're adding more support for targeting your own creatures in Blue, why not try Battlewise Hoplite? Could be fun.

I'm excited to see how this version plays. I'm most concerened about Legolas and Toshiro Umezawa, but only play testing can tell.

Cube Size

This update brings the Cube up to 450 cards. I like a floating size for give the option of adding and cutting cards at freely. As our weekly Cube nights have gotten more popular, adding in a few more cards to allow a 10 person draft is worth it. I don't want the list to be much bigger, so I'll probably stick with 450, at least for a while.

The update includes some very speculative inclusions. As well as a few cuts.

Cuts

I've made an effort to cut a few red 2 drops. It's hard apparently. Ghitu Amplifier is a great fit for the environment, and maybe you could call it not a two drop even, but it's a bit wordy. It and Wee Dragonauts also contribute to a theme which has been over performing a bit when it comes together and I want to tune back down. They're not the best payoffs, but volume matters in addition to quality. Careless Celebrant is interesting on being a somewhat novel way to take advantage of the sacrifice theme, but isn't super fun to play against. Greater Sandwurm and Mad Ratter rarely if ever see play. I do like the Ratter, and I might think on it more and sneak it back in. Wrath's remain divisive and not well understood. If anything, one or two of them get played in any draft so cutting Vanquish the Horde is pretty low impact.

Adds

I've added in three more copies of Ash Barrens on top of the 4th already present. It makes sense to increase the land count a bit so the fraction doesn't drop too much, and Ash Barrens plays well and gives a little more variety to the "fetch lands".

Scrapwork Mutt is the most exciting new inclusion for me. It's not an all star, but just does a whole lot and has the potential to interact well with a lot of other cards. It does also play into some of the most supported themes which might need to get tuned down. Rabbit Battery is something I've been meaning to add which I'm optimistic about as well. It fits the "1 drop with late game relevance and lots of opportunities to interact with other effects" bill perfectly. Recruitment Officer, Thopter Mechanic, Cut Down and some others are easy to include recent releases that'll be solid role-players.

Looking over the list, and through my collection to fill out that 450, I had a thought on Green. In the local group, green is generally considered the weakest color (followed by blue). Part of the issue is that green has some of the smallest and least exciting gold sections. In particular, GU, GR, and GB. I don't want 5 color piles to be the norm, but I could see green's ability to splash being a nice way to give it more of an identity which it's been lacking. Bloodbraid Elf, Fires of Yavimaya, and Shardless Agent and probably above the normal power level here, but they could contribute to more effective, proactive, multi-color strategies in green. I have no idea what Bring to Light will do, if anything, but people enjoy it in other contexts, and is a more direct signal towards multi-color green.

Also some blue cards. Remand is probably over-powered here, but maybe I've been over cautious about counter spells here and should try pushing it. I think it and the other blue inclusions will make the color a bit more appealing.

This pretty large update includes some small, lingering changes from Non Dynasty and Streets of New Capenna along with major additions from Dominaria United.

A large portion of the additions are off-color kicker cards from DMU. Mechanically, these fit the environment perfectly, adding scalable effects that reward carefully built mana bases. Some of these are direct swaps for similar classic effects which it makes sense to have a higher ceiling on. The update bolsters aggressive strategies in Naya colors with some new gold cards I hope will pull more people into those strategies. It also adds a fair number of cards for a spells matter theme.

I've avoided double faced cards up to this point. The biggest reason is just the complete hidden information during the draft. They're also often very complex and the logistics of flipping cards around isn't great. There are plenty of cards, excluding this small set doesn't take much away.

Twinblade Geist has made me break that rule though. Double strike is a great mechanic that interacts with a lot of other effects. Fencing Ace is just a bit under-powered for this context. Adorned Pouncer has been in the list for a long time and it's doesn't play great. Players aren't especially excited about it and then when you can eternalize it, it's a must-answer threat that takes over the game. Twinblade Geist is a Fencing Ace with upside that's much more appealing. The second half is less punishing, more castable, and has even more potential to combine in novel ways with other cards. Of the double faced card mechanics, disturb is definitely my favorite and at the cost of some hidden information, is the cleanest implementation of 'flashback for creatures'. If I hear enough people asking what this card does on the back I may cut it, but for now I'm giving it a try.

By Invitation Only is a very interesting card. Wraths have played in a bit of a weird way in this environment (or not been played at all). As a modal wrath that may make a lot of sense in decks that are otherwise still largely focused on creatures I think it's much more powerful here than other options at 5 mana. It may be that this card is way over-powered and is an auto play in all decks that can cast it so I'm skeptical it'll last, but I think it's worth a try.

I meant to include Portable Hole earlier and just missed it. I'm always happy to have more interaction at an appropriate power level.

I'm not necessarily trying to make 1-for-1 swaps, but my white section is a bit heavy. (I feel like the only cube designer with this problem.) Giant Killer is a fine card, but has played out a bit awkwardly. The spell has surprisingly few targets, but it still feels like you're doing it wrong if you cast the creature early.

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Additions

Midnight Hunt introduces some solid, clean cards that are a perfect fit for Regular Cube.

Consider is a card I've wanted to see for at least as long as the Surveil keyword existed. I do wish Surveil was keyworded on this card. Generally uncommon keywords actually make cards less readable, but I just wish Surveil was used often enough for the shortcut to be meaningful. The gut reaction is to replace Opt, but I'm just going to include both, despite avoiding functionally similar cards.

Fading Hope is another "upgrade" to a classic card. While I'm not generally motivated by increasing the power level of individual cards, String of Disappearances is rarely played and it's text over Unsummon comes up just about never. A slightly powered up version of this effect with a more obvious upside feels like an improvement.

Odric's Outrider is the kind of card I enjoy playing with. Letting you distribute counters anywhere and make use of death triggers lets you set up interesting game plans. On power level, especially at 4 mana here it's probably a little low, but maybe it not being kill-on-sight will be an upside. Also in white, Loyal Gryff is impossible for a Whitemane Lion fan to pass up. I like it less that the ability is a free roll rather than a build around or something you have to work towards. I may end up swapping it for Stonecloaker which I don't really know why I haven't already included.

Wraths have been a bit difficult to balance and Vanquish the Horde is an interesting one. In this environment, being as efficient, if not more than Wrath of God is not unlikely, and the bar for Wrath's is higher (or lower?) then that here. But I don't think it's going to hit the point where you can do absolutely nothing and hold back a wrath. I like that it flavorfully reenforces the idea of punishing overcommitting to the board in a mechanical way. I'm happy to go up another wrath if the balance is right, and wide strategies have been a bit dominant.

Fleshtaker is potentially a risky one, offering more support to already dominant strategies; however, these have mostly been successful in black-red, so I think seeding a signpost card in another color pair may actually nerf token, sacrifice decks a bit. It's just a cool card. I love that it rewards you with immediate board presence at a high cost, gives you filtering, but not strict card advantage, benefits from building towards it, and has my favorite cost for an activated ability.

Reverted Changes

I'm reverting a few past changes with this update, including swapping Barrin, Tolarian Archmage back to Man-o'-War. I liked the addition of opportunities for more play patterns and interactions with other cards, but the added complexity hasn't felt worth it over a classic and perfectly simple card. Maybe more importantly, in this context the card advantage Barrin can generate is extremely valuable, tilting it's main use case way in the opposite direction. From a card like this, I'm much happier for the main mode to be a tempo play.

Neither Bushmeat Poacher or Spark Reaper is perfect and both are a little below par, but as the cube has evolved I'm happier to have the cheaper option that doesn't block quite as well that still has some relevance in the late game. Can't forget, it's also a zombie.

Wee Dragonauts is also a bit below rate here so I begrudgingly swapped it for the technically strictly better Umara Mystic. In retrospect the extra text is such a trinket and suggests something that isn't really happening I just don't find it worth it. More importantly, I can't abide trading down the fantastic illustration on Wee Dragonauts.

Gold Cards

The history of this cube has mostly involved cutting down on gold cards. It's gotten light in some guilds and in general it's felt like a reasonable mix. I'm both cutting some gold cards that haven't been playing well and upping the count to square up the color pairs a bit.

Some notable changes, I'm cutting Master of Death (not surprisingly) and Mayhem Devil. The devil went unplayed for the longest time. But red, black sacrifice has become pretty dominant and I don't love some of the play patterns both for being easy to miss and sometimes pretty oppressive.

Contraband Kingpin and Lorescale Coatl are a just a bit underwhelming.

The additions are generally focused on trying to be the right amount of power above mono colored cards and the right degree of signaling some synergies. Many of these additions are pretty speculative. We'll see how they go.

Persist

Although I don't intend to support any "combos" in a certain sense I like a lot of cards individually that happen to in theory add up to the persist combo. It being more like an occasion easter egg for experienced players seemed neat. In practice it was more of a trap. I'm at the very least scaling that back cutting Safehold Elite and Lesser Masticore. The Masticore has also always felt appealing but been underwhelming in practice.

Other Minor Changes

Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin have been around as a low-efficiency way to offer some interaction for Land Folk and bounce lands, but have not even been played as sideboard cards.

Another break in functional duplicates, I'm adding Chromatic Sphere and Mishra's Factory just cause I like them so much.

I've been mulling over this set of changes for a while. I expected Modern Horizons 2 to bring a many new cards and making cuts to keep the cube from growing too much would be a challenge. After a sudden, maybe unrelated, change of heart I ended up making many more cuts than adds.

Cutting Down on Power

I'm surprising myself here, making substantial cuts to power outliers on both ends of the spectrum.

At the top end cards like Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Kess, Dissident Mage, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, and Heirloom Blade are out. It breaks my heart a little. An exciting aspect of designing this cube was creating a space for particular cards to shine that otherwise did not. Unfortunately they shine a little too bright and shape too many games. These cards that either generate a lot of value at little cost to playing them or snowball if not immediately answered go against the goal of an environment for spikes, where squeezing as much value from your cards as possible is key.

I'm even bringing myself to cut Booster Tutor. It was fun for a while (I still enjoy it), but it's a bad combination of extremely powerful, difficult to resolve, and high variance (at least perceived).

Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths was at first exciting, and is quietly very powerful here. The effect has lost its luster for me though. What seemed like an interesting mini-game quickly degenerates to a single, optimal strategy. Once you and your opponent know the card, it just makes work, not interesting decisions.

Find // Finality has tremendous flexibility, interesting draft patterns, and interesting decisions, but all that's overshadowed when it's more often just: play this and win.

I'll miss these cards, but as my playgroup has gotten more familiar with the environment, they illicit more groans than delight. It helps that many, if not all, these cards will find a new home as rares in this cube's spiritual successor.

The Low End

On the other side of the spectrum I've taken out a big chunk of cards that consistently under-perform or have been misleading.

Some of these cuts are disappointing as well. Flux Channeler was thrown into the initial list without too much thought except there are plenty of spells and counters in Magic and it's an exciting (to some at least) build around. Even in this context it's too much work for too little reward, particularly in blue. Satyr Wayfinder similarly was never intended to signal a particular strategy but provides some value and filtering for the many things that care about graveyards, but just doesn't do quite enough to feel like it makes sense. Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted is a card I was quite excited to see at this power level. I love the play patterns in theory, a high downside card that can be used in multiple ways, but it never gets played, and I'm not blaming anyone.

Some of the other cards are more middling. Knight of Grace and Sea Gate Oracle and others get played, but they don't feel quite at home any more. Do we really want random color interactions? Do we really want blue decks to just have easy roadblocks with card selection? I will always love Changeling Hero, but it's another card that's almost never played and if it is is quite swingy. Relic Robber is a very cool design, and can play out well, but is clearly not a good fit for this environment. The consistent source of damage is far from guaranteed. Red decks here are much more interested in finding reach and ways to close out the game as your opponent develops their board, not a 3 mana creature that already had to have had a way through.

Green is Hard

Green retains the title of the color with the most churn. As usual I feel like I've fixed it. My initial design of the cube included quite a few two mana ramp creatures. This fit the plan of bumping everything up in cost and supporting tapped lands. I think this was a mistake. I don't think dedicated ramp is a requirement for green. I've never really been interested in emphasizing a big ramp strategy and that's what players expect from them. What results is a misleading draft and decks that just 'feel bad'. I'm cutting most of the ramp creatures and plan to focus more on proactive green stuff. The remaining two mana dorks are (mostly) 2/2s for two. Hopefully they'll be effective as a way to play a four or five drop early and still be relevant creatures. Adding a few more 4 mana green creatures in favor of bigger things helps this as well.

Lands

The triomes are cool. I'd be lying if I wasn't influenced by the amazing illustrations. They're played, but feel slightly at odds with the rest of the environment. Cycling 3 is less relevant than I'd like, we don't really need more tapped lands, and something about getting all five colors in two lands is just a bit rude.

Maze of Ith was a clear power outlier in an earlier version of the cube. Labyrinth of Skophos is on the other end of the spectrum, and when it is relevant is just enhancing board stalls. I'm always interested in lands that 'do stuff', but this is not it.

Lotus Field is powerful fixing with a number of neat interactions, but I've been consistently coming down on it since its release. The downside of seeing it in a two land hand feels more and more real, especially as the environment evolves. It's truly horrible interactions with other lands, especially bounce lands, push it over the edge.

In the last update I added Tranquil Cove just to bring up the floor on lands in all color pairs. The life gain isn't particularly relevant. As an artifact Razortide Bridge is also pretty marginal but has a much better chance to come up. It's a weird color pair for an artifact land, but increasingly less so. I could see adding more in relevant colors if I increase lands more. It being indestructible could also come up.

New Stuff!

While the cube is shrinking a bit, MH2 does have a ton of relevant cards. Barbed Spike is another tidy design to enable equipment while mitigating equipment flood. I initially compared it to Ancestral Blade and thought I preferred the blade before I realized I was asking the wrong question. They're doing similar things and they belong together. Bone Shards is a perfect fit. I love downsides that can be turned into upsides. Offering a choice of downsides makes this card so much less narrow, enough to make it 'just good', but also much more likely to lead to interesting plays.

Green gets beef with Bannerhide Krushok, Scurry Oak, Wren's Run Hydra, and maybe some less stable includes. Reinforce does it all between targeting creatures, making counters, and, like living weapons do for equipment, enabling more combat tricks to see play.

For the first time in a while I'm gleefully adding more gold cards rather than forcing myself to cut them (although I did that too!). Captured by Lagacs needs no explanation. Graceful Restoration is a perfect twist on Zombify. Zombify's not going to make it into many fair environments and outside of them is hard to make work. The option to buy back two creatures which may have gone to the yard naturally by mana-five makes it much less of a liability. It may be a perfect fit. I expect it to buy back Cruel Celebrant and Corpse Knight and destroy me.

Master of Death could be pushing the power level a bit and have some undesirable, repetitive play patterns. But I love surveil, opening up more graveyard interactions, and providing a different tool for slower decks as other powerful cards are on their way out. Chrome Courier is also a less obvious fit in these colors, but it works well on a few axes. The artifact bit may be a bit of a distraction, but plenty of cards in blue care about it being an artifact and plenty of white cards interact well with a small flying creature with an ETB.

Beyond MH2

With these changes a few cards beyond MH2 make a little more sense. Daring Archaeologist was in the initial list for the cube, but failed to do much of anything. With the artifact and counter themes being consistently bolstered, and the power level and easy card advantage being lowered, it's much more appealing. I can't give up 'champion' altogether and Changeling Berserker may actually be a great fit. A 5/3 haste is something that needs an answer. It lets red decks get some value out of creatures that are no longer relevant and is very likely to trade of making it's ability to re-trigger ETBs something you can actually play towards.

Narrowing the Power Level

This change is another big jump towards an even flatter power level. This isn't itself a goal, but I think is a step towards other goals of repeatable gameplay and games revolving less around individual cards but the interactions between them. There's also a big downside in removing some of the powerful cards that lead to exciting games (at least at first) and have become defining parts of the cube's identity. Overall I'm happy with these changes. I'm optimistic and excited to see how it plays differently, but it also makes more more excited for the opportunity to solve these issues in a different way in the Irregular Cube.

This long overdue, Strixhaven related update includes a few new cards from the set and some unrelated minor changes.

White

I really like the design of Thunderous Orator. It's a serviceable card in a proactive deck and offers a high, but disrupt-able, ceiling for putting in just a little effort drafting, and playing around it.

Beaming Defiance is a strictly worse Blossoming Defense, which is already played marginally, but I think the effect is slightly more appealing in white. I'm not confident it'll last long, but I'm happy to have more options for combat tricks that can also be relevant in more situations, but proactively and defensively.

Luminarch Apirant was on the fence, obviously pushing the power level immediately. After seeing it in play a few times it has definitely had an 'answer me now or lose' vibe. I don't think it's a problem, but that's also not particularly inline with the rest of the gameplay here, so for now it's getting kicked all the way to the rare module of another cube.

Blue

I did not intend these as one-for-one swaps, but Frost Trickster is going in, and Cloudkin Seer is coming out. Seer has been quietly extremely powerful here. With a very relevant body without the cost of the card, it slots into any blue deck and doesn't lead to much interesting play. I expect trickster to be a much better fit, playing into tempo rather than easy value, and even still having some of the same minor card interactions. Frost Lynx has always been an appealing card to me, but is pretty clearly below the power level here.

Curate might just be the perfect cantrip for this cube. At two mana, not every deck will want it, but instant speed keeps it relevant, and I love the opportunity for graveyard interactions. Chart a Course has been another quiet but clear power outlier and I'm happy to kick it down a notch.

Black

Lash of Malice: Instant speed small removal with potential alternate play patterns in combat? Perfect.

Plumb the Forbidden is my favorite variant of this effect. I love Altar's Reap and similar, but the floor on them is just too low to be happy includes. Being able to cycle Plumb makes a narrow effect much more appealing, as does the possibility of having a high ceiling. It even has the (marginal) upside of not being a tremendous risk against counter magic.

Ravenous Chupacabra has always bothered me a bit for being a little too similar to Skinrender and a bit suspect in terms of power. But let's be honest, I'm cutting another black four just to bargain with the little voice in my head telling me Gonti, Lord of Luxury is the real problem here.

Piper of the Swarm has never been as relevant as I hoped or expected. It's a little too slow, even in this environment. A complicated card that promises a lot and doesn't deliver is exactly what I don't want.

Red

no change

weird

Green

Emergent Sequence is a perfect upgrade over Druid of the Cowl. I'm not saying green is in a perfect place here, but I'm pushing it to have some more proactive options and having a 2/2 over a 1/3 makes much more sense overall. The fact that it also touches on +1/+1 counters and land synergies is exciting to me. I'm not sure how relevant those interactions will actually be. If they aren't relevant, I could see cutting the card for being very complex without being meaningfully different.

World Shaper is another over complicated card that signals a specific theme which isn't actually powerful enough to make the cut. I do think it's a little under-rated by my local group, but not by much.

Pheres-Band Brawler is coming in over Affectionate Indrik. I'm very happy to remove the 'may' clause. The Indrik is technically more powerful, but when that difference is relevant, no one feels good about it. I also don't hate the double green pips.

Caller of the Claw, Mother Bear, and Basking Rootwalla have been misses. I will miss that lizard though.

Gold

With every update I take a look at my aspirational gold section for any easy cuts. Zhur-Taa Druid is a card I like quite a bit, but as a card which really needs to be played early and isn't powerful enough to draw you into the color pair it misses on a lot of axes.

The complexity of Status // Statue isn't pulling its weight as Status is almost never cast, and that makes it much less of a hybrid card than others in this cycle. It's also been confused in the draft and in hands with Find // Finality a non-zero number of times which knocks a few points off it too.

Lands

I've liked the idea of Rishadan Port as very soft resource denial that punishes bounce lands, which are more often played than not, but the format isn't fast or focused on efficiency enough for it to be relevant.

I'm always looking for ways for proactive decks to get some extra reach and I'm very interested in how Access Tunnel will play. Rogue's Passage really doesn't appeal to me as a card you could (but maybe shouldn't) put in any deck and can suddenly win a stalled game for no reason. The restriction and cheaper cost makes the tunnel much more appealing, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's still just not worth the tax on your mana base.

I love lands with abilities and mana sinks and am always looking for ways to diversify lands and break up cycles between colors in this environment. I'm adding two campuses, Prismari Campus and Witherbloom Campus.

While I'm at it, I'm adding Tranquil Cove and Sulfurous Springs to bring all color pairs up to a minimum of four land cycles. I'm no stickler about balancing that, but it was looking pretty wonky. I have no particular attachment to specific lands and would be happy to have even more options that add choices to gameplay.


Unrelated to these changes, I've been working on a new cube, tentatively named Irregular Cube. The new cube is largely taking the same design goals as this one and focusing on another set of mechanics. It's also a way to start form scratch to shake myself out of what could be a local maximum of my design abilities in this cube without upending a cube which ultimately I'm pretty happy with.

It's possible I'll keep playing and updating both in parallel, but as I'm discovering some of the structural changes may be doing a much better job of serving my goals, it's also possible Irregular Cube just supersedes and replaces this one.

This update includes a small number of updates from Kaldheim along with quite a few other little adjustments that have been accumulating.

White

Especially when trying to support proactive, two color decks CC two drops are difficult to support, and I've cut back on them, but I'm switching Consul's Lieutenant back to Precinct Captain. I think the power level is similar, but the former is un-appealingly wordy and I think token generators are a more valuable resource.

I've enjoyed Bound in Gold in limited. The opportunity for it to be more flexible than a pacifism works well. Seal Away while efficient, has the problem of not working especially well in proactive decks and removing the creature from the board removes some opportunities for interaction.

The 'double spell' mechanic is a really nice level of build- and play-around. The iteration in Kaldheim has some cards with reasonable floors. I'm adding Clarion Spirit and could see more in the future. It doesn't fit into any specific archetype, but think will just work reasonable in low curve or tempo decks with red or white, and interacts with token and go wide synergies.

Luminarch Aspirant at first seemed a bit over powered for this context, but I think the kind of proactive value it generates doesn't snowball in a problematic ways and offers a lot of decision points and light build-around options.

Release the Dogs is a fine card, but the token diversity is real and as a four drop it's felt a bit clunky.

Steppe Lynx sounded perfect as a proactive landfall matters cards, but the environment just isn't set up for it to work even in what amounts to a very narrow spot.

Blue

Quench is a Mana Leak nerf. Leak has been a bit too easy and doesn't offer much space to play around.

As the curve of the cube has gotten progressively lower Disdainful Stroke has just gotten too narrow to be relevant.

Black

The curious upside of Mind Rake is just too narrow. Despite the much much lower quality illustration, I think Mind Drain is more likely to be relevant.

Red

Relic Robber is an interesting card that gives proactive decks some reach. It may not last depending on how much of a liability the tokens are against some decks.

Countryside Crusher has never performed well or been particularly fun to play with, and Experimental Frenzy similarly has felt like a bit of a trap, although could return.

Green

I like having one or two flexible, reactive combat tricks / protection spells. Vines of Vastwood may be the more powerful option, and I'm not concerned about either being too powerful, but Snakeskin Veil offers a bit more in terms of mechanical interactions without much of a loss.

Although I generally avoid planeswalkers which generate continuous value, Vivien, Champion of the Wilds came up in the design of another cube and I think it actually might be a good fit, if close to the top of the power curve. It can generate a lot of value, but takes some work.

Living weapon has always appealed to me and I'm excited to see more variants. Despite looking not particularly exciting I think Elven Bow will play better than it looks, at the very least in sideboards. Reach is a relevant keyword.

Masked Vandal is an easy additional Reclamation Sage and a changeling to boot. Two effects I'd like to turn up a bit.

Loathsome Chimera and Nessian Hornbeetle are best friends. Like the bow I like the way these cards play. Escape is a great mechanic in terms of providing a controlled source of card advantage you can build towards. I expect the chimera to play better than it looks and provide a relevant late-game threat.

Leafkin Druid has been on the chopping block for a bit. I recently added some other dorks and have a higher density than I really want. It's extra text rarely comes up and I'm happier to not have it.

I'm also cutting Scale the Heights and Once Upon a Time just to trim green a bit. I like Explore but even with the extra effects Scale doesn't quite get their. Once Upon a Time is powerful, but doesn't ultimately feel necessary. One day they'll print an Adventurous Impulse with the right balance for me.

Gold

I'm cutting the much maligned Cosmotronic Wave and replacing it sort of with Heroic Reinforcements. It fills a similar role without being quite as arbitrary and encourages a particular kind of gameplay. I'm also cutting Tenth District Legionnaire to keep myself from creeping on gold cards. I really like the legionnaire, but it's hard to make cuts from Boros (an opinion shared by no other cube designer) and I'd rather have cards that don't lose so much value after turn two and are more reasonable in a Boros deck heavily skewed to one color.

Maja, Bretagard Protector may be the Sporemound I've been looking for. It's a pretty clear plant Wizards designed for just this cube. Sporemound is a card I love but is a bit too far below the power level median. The additional anthem means Maja can have a big effect on combat when she enters the battlefield. Sticking to my responsible plan I'm cutting Knight of Autumn. The card's fine, but the menu-style design has never particularly resonated with me.

Angrath, Captain of Chaos has been on my maybe list for as long as this cube has existed. It pushes against some complicated power level limits, but it also ticks so many boxes. Menace is an excellent mechanic and gives proactive decks a way to force the issue. I love hybrid and it slots into token and sacrifice themes too.

Brown

I was hoping for another couple relevant shapeshifters in Kaldheim, but I'll take Bloodline Pretender. In this environment I think it'll be easy enough to power this up into a relevant threat on it's own with just a little attention to it. It fits well with token and small tribal themes as well as counters and artifacts. It's no Metallic Mimic, but I hope it'll be a 23 card people will be happy about.

Nim Deathmantle has been in the list from the beginning. I initially expected it to be too powerful, but especially as the format has evolved it's more of a trap than anything. Byeeeee.

Lands

Mutavault over Mishra's Factory seems like a pretty straight upgrade here. I don't know why I didn't think about it sooner. Incidental tribal interactions are more likely to happen (now and as the cube evolves) than playing a colorless land as a slightly better blocker. Ultimately both may end up in the list.

As I've been trying to push two color aggro in Naya colors, I've been looking at different options for fixing. The filter lands, including Rugged Prairie, Fire-Lit Thicket, and Wooded Bastion are far from a slam dunk for me. They make you care about and punish how you tap your lands in a way I don't enjoy. On the other hand, I think they do specifically reward two color decks in a major way, so I'm optimistic. Along these lines I've also added Battlefield Forge since fixing is most valuable in these colors for proactive decks.

Creeping Tar Pit's been lurking around long enough, I think it's time we invite them in.

That you can bring many different decks and strategies to the same game is so much what I love about Magic. The color pie has a lot to do with that. I'd love to diversify lands between colors even more to play into their strategies and flavors. Expanding the Zendikar landfolk cycle doesn't feel in that spirit, but I'll forgive myself since this cycle is already so asymmetrical within itself.

Just a few additions. I've been thinking more about the structure of aggressive decks and supporting two color aggro decks which emphasize one color to mitigate inevitable mana issues. In that light it makes sense that blue and especially black can still play a role in aggro decks even if they don't serve as the base color. With that in mind I'm feeling more willing to include a few support cards in these colors.

Judith, the Scourge Diva, Lampad of Death's Vigil, and the recently added Cruel Celebrant seem like perfect fits in that light. They can be powerful cards giving reach to aggressive decks, even if they're not played on curve, while still having a spot in slower decks trying to grind out value. Giving more support to 'go wide', token, and sacrifice strategies opens up more strategies. The interplay between going tall vs wide and different types of removal this adds creates a strategic axis I think is interesting. The biggest risk I see with these is just that they might present misleading signals.

Phyrexian Tower just floated past my radar and caught my attention. Free sacrifice outlets that don't take a 'spell slot' seem like a boon. I think it could end up being a fun build around with an interesting level of risk. The risk is it's just extremely swingy and creates a lot of feel bads. I'm curious to find out.

Werebear is another one that's just been on the fringes for a while. Signaling 'threshold' could be a downside, but I like the card. I might end up dialing back a green dork or two. I'm getting much happier with where the green section is, but I want to push aggressive / midrange a bit more. Werebear feels more in line with that then say Leafkin Druid which is looking suspect.

It's with a heavy heart that I cut Wee Dragonauts. What could Wizards do that's worse than print strictly better cards with worse flavor!? After a long think though, this is a small power bump that's not unwelcome to make the 'spells' theme more appealing. My poor little dragon boys can go in the same sad box next to Stormchaser Mage.

I've been fiddling with green's top end a bunch. I'm on the fence about Primeval Titan but I think I have one or two too many big green cards and want to drop one.

Rampant Growth is strong and unnecessary. There's a wealth of 3 mana variants with interesting upsides, and I think that's an appropriate cost where it's really only effective in a dedicated ramp deck, not a reason to play nonsense decks. I'm not sure Scale the Heights is the right choice, but the counter is kind of neat.

Pyroclasm has felt a bit out of place and I've only seen it splashed in green decks. If it's necessary at all, a harder to splash but more much more flexible variant seems great. My only criticism of Cinderclasm is the main mode is a bit buried.

Bubble Snare and Bloodchief's Thirst have played well in limited and are solid flexible removal spells that I think are a good add.

Cruel Celebrant I think will be a good fit. It makes Corpse Knight look more at home. I think I overlooked it because black isn't particularly aggressive, but it plays into a lot of what it's doing.

Heraldic Banner is also something I didn't especially care for initially, but I think some of the 'go wide' cards need a little more support and this does that without a ton of risk of creating board stalls.

Slimefoot, the Stowaway was in my initial design of the cube. I loved playing the card in Dominaria limited, but it way underperformed here. I think the reason is in Dominaria card advantage was a much scarcer resource, making mana sinks more valuable, and there were plenty of other sources of saprolings so they often had an immediate effect on the battlefield. As easy card advantage has been dialed down and a couple saprolings have popped up here and there I think it's worth another try.

Turns out Zendikar Rising isn't offering much to me. I was excited for the return of landfall but the commons all fall a little short of power, and the rares above the mark.

Fearless Fledgling is a delight. I'm happy to push landfall and add more cheap evasive cards in white.

Pestermite has been in consideration for a long time. It's relatively cheap, very flexible, and interactive. The biggest reason I've avoided it is because it's so strongly associated with a specific combo, challenging it's evaluation in a very different context, or worse, setting people up to be disappointed or confused the combo isn't there. I think though as the power level has dropped and leveled out the latter is a bit less of a concern.

Kenrith's Transformation is a bigger bend in the color pie than I'm entirely comfortable, but I consistently enjoy playing with it in other contexts.

Some bears wandered in. There are a few little build around cards for tokens, but I think it could be punched up a bit and green's a little slack.

Cuts

Mist-Syndicate Naga has been a boogeyman for a long time. The card is quite powerful, and it's taken quite highly, even warping decks when opened late. It's lasted because I like it and have never felt it to be oppressive on either side of the battlefield. As the cube is becoming more balanced I think it's time for it to go, the final straw being that even if it is in balance with the kind of removal in the format, it is always going to be very swingy.

Hanged Executioner is very cool. I love how many opportunities it has to interact many other mechanics. But it consistently under performs. In a small gesture toward balancing out the color distribution, it's a sad, but easy cut.

Suspension Field and Hyena Umbra are similarly cut just to slim down white and cut down on functionally very similar cards. The umbra in particular is a card you don't wan't many of in your deck and I like Sentinel's Eyes a bit more.

When you don't even put Voltaic Servant in your Traxos, Scourge of Kroog deck you know it's not doing it's job. I like the card, but it's currently not offering enough interactions to pull it's weight.

Entrancing Lyre was a nerfed Icy Manipulator. I was pleasantly surprised by how it played in limited, but it's not quite making the cut here. They're both appealing to me as soft, conditional interaction with opportunities to set up particular attacks, but neither feels like a good fit.

I think I'm coming around to this little guy's face.

Mainboard Changelist+65, -65
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