Had a good prerelease! Set's great! Let's get some cards in here!
White
Trimming out a couple of things that send incorrect signals (there's no cats deck, for instance) and stuff that kinda wasn't working. Bringing in just good stuff, a little bit of token synergy. Precinct Captain could come back in.
Blue
Cutting some clunkers for mostly self mill stuff (Stillness in Motion looks so cool).
Black
These adds are more chunky, less efficient, but trimming some clunk.
Red
Trading out stuff that didn't seem like it was doing much for some neat, efficient cards.
Green
Just new Surrak replacing Serpopard. Serpopard may shut down more interaction, but Surrak offers coverage from more stuff.
Multicolor
Adds seem just better for Mardu and Abzan. Finally cutting the last of the mutate cards. I'll get around to finding a home for them at some point. Arwen is super cool and Darien is super generic. Similar relationship between Marshal of the Lost and Knights of the Black Rose. Izzet needs more spells, but I'm sorry to see Bilbo go. I do want to trim out the Ring from this cube and find a home for it elsewhere (similar to mutate, hmmmm...). Honestly wish I had pulled more of the Temur elephant cards because they're awesome. Temur Monument is also cool, while contributing to the amount of etb artifacts. idk if Arashin and Dalkovan are good, but they're way flashier than what they're replacing.
Having finally gotten my hands on the last chunk of lands I needed, the expansion update is now complete. And with that, I can unveil my plans! This cube is getting a rebrand!
Introducing...
What's different?
This marks a bit of a shift in ethos for this cube, where it'll be less "throw in whatever I played at the prerelease" and more trying to tighten up the actual play experience to something a bit more cohesive, but still with a ton of different stuff going on. To this end, the rules will be officially getting a bit more relaxed going forward, but not going away entirely.
The number of cards shouldn't change anymore, and the skeleton is roughly staying the same going forward.
The draft format is changing! Pack sizes are going up from 15 to 20, to accommodate somewhat for the sheer size of the cube making it more difficult for themes to come together.
Didn't end up getting to go to a prerelease for this set, but I grabbed a few packs and liked some of the cards I got!
White
Rooms are cool! It's a neat twist on split cards, and I'm glad to have a couple here. Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery has the potential to be really powerful in an assertive/go wide strategy, and Grand Entryway // Elegant Rotunda helps to enable that strategy.
Cast Out and Defiant Strike aren't bad cards, but are a little narrow. Cast Out is flexible, but not great on either end, and the synergy points for cycling aren't in white anymore. Defiant Strike only really has a home in a dedicated prowess or heroic deck, and doesn't really do the job of pushing damage or protecting a creature.
Black
Withering Torment feels like a pretty strict upgrade over Nocturnal Hunger.
Red
Chainsaw may not have flash, but the efficiency and more buildaround ability over Idol of the Deep King is a big deal.
Piggy Bank ties into so much of the artifact support here while still being an efficient aggressive creature. Harnesser of Storms hasn't really gotten a chance here, but it just isn't efficient in what it does and is pretty capped in how much it can do.
Green
Cathartic Parting is a great answer to some of the most troublesome, sticky permanents. Flesh Burrower isn't amazing, but it's good for asserting pressure as well as being decent on defense.
Wall of Blossoms doesn't really have support pieces to lean into anymore, and Sporocyst was never really great in any of the things it was trying to do.
Multicolor
The Swarmweaver doesn't have a ton here in the tribes it's supporting, but offers a decent payoff for delirium, which has a lot of support.
Bortuk Bonerattle doesn't have the right kind of support to make its high mana cost worth it.
Blue
Blue gets some solid creatures and adds to the graveyard themes. The cuts are either too weird or just not appealing on rate.
Black
Slowly building up the food theme over time. Let me cook! Also feeding into graveyards and lifegain.
Cuts are cards that are too expensive or slow in what they do or are too weak or unsupported.
Red
Got a couple of fun pieces here for the stompy, aggro, and spells based decks.
Cutting a couple of stragglers from the lingering cycling theme. Red Herring may be a better Valley Dasher, but Valley Dasher was never good. Eomer's payoff is a little too small and a little too conditional for the stage of the game he shows up.
Green
Tons of toys here! More foodstuffs! I wanted to put Cache Grab in here but the only preexisting squirrel is Earl of Squirrel. The frog bouncing stuff is experimental, but I really hope to see Mistbreath Elder do cool things.
Cuts are again, weaker on rate stuff, plus some pieces that have better versions available.
Still getting around to that lands update, so here's some stuff from the new set in the meantime!
Multicolor
We weren't doing anything cool with Break Out anyway, and Hugs, Grisly Guardian is a very exciting midrange beater that scales very well into the later game.
Relentless Raptor was always filler, and Seedglaive Mentor is very cool.
Colorless
Turns out I had two copies of Captain's Claws? Fountainport Bell is just the kind of dorky artifact that I love.
I think I figured out why I've soured so much on Chromatic Lantern. Unless you're doing something very greedy, the fixing that a manalith offers should should fix 90% of your color issues once it hits play. The extra fixing offered by Lantern doesn't do anything if your deck is reasonably constructed, and if you were relying on that extra fixing you were either deep in the hole or your deck sucks. So out it goes in favor of Patchwork Banner which actually offers a signal to do something interesting with it!
White
Shrike Force replacing Kithkin Billyrider was a swap I wanted to make as soon as I saw the card and I managed to pull it naturally!
Coalition Skyknight is a house in retail limited, but those properties turn out not to transition to cube. Essence Channeler fits into cube themes here very well.
Master Trinketeer has too few hits in the rest of the cube and is too slow to fuel itself. Hop to It goes wide much more aggressively.
Herald of Anafenza is the slowest 1 drop you'll ever see in your life. Carrot Cake fits into almost every theme present in white.
The only thing that Dewdrop Cure doesn't do better than Patch Up is getting back a singular 3 drop, and I think that's just fine.
The Princess Takes Flight doesn't feel supported enough. You really feel like you need to do the sacrifice trick for it to be worth including unless you very aggressive.
As the cube gets bigger, another board wipe like Starfall Invocation felt like a good include.
Eternal Dragon is a classically slow card, but it's just too much now.
Skywhaler's Shot vs Repel Calamity is a very interesting comparison, but I think the cheaper cost wins out in the end.
Mabel's Mettle supports the growing heroic theme, which is very exciting.
Ok, I had more lands on hand than I thought. Adding the lightest touch of deserts-matter. Unfortunately, I'm still bottlenecked on dual land availability, but now the bottleneck is more the fault of simic than golgari, so pretend that everything I said before about Foul Orchard I actually said about Woodland Stream.
So my intent is to bring the land count up to 150, with the large bulk of that being fixing lands. Unfortunately, to round that out properly, I'm going to need to break the rules and buy some. (The only golgari land I have on hand is freaking Foul Orchard, for crying out loud.) I'm not breaking the bank for them, but I want to not play garbage (like Foul Orchard). So consider this Part 8.1 until that happens, probably in a couple of weeks.
Looking to bulk up green's interaction with the various artifact tokens, plus some good graveyard synergy (particularly with lands). I've been wanting an extra hexproof trick as well. We're now up to 3 different 5 cost Nissa's, which can hopefully get a little diversified in the future.
There's stuff here for artifacts, spells, the Ring, tokens, Humans, and madness! As well as some returning cards! I don't know if the Ring can properly thrive at this size, I'm contemplating moving it to another project. I still want to see if it can do anything here.
Got some pet cards in here, as well as stuff to support weird themes like burn, food, madness, and enchantments.
Trying to emphasize spells and artifacts, as well as some scry and mill!
Pretty wide spread of new cards for white, really scattered across various strategies and archetypes.
NOTE: I found a good artifact payoff in Izzet! Also in Dimir!
All adds here, very simple. Including some powerful experimental pieces like Sovereign's Realm and Skullclamp. Some big stuff for the ramp decks and Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty. Always random baubles for the artifactocrats deck.
It's time to start growing this thing! I'm unsure if I'm going to 1000 or 1005, but this seemed like a good place to start.
Azorius
Battlewise Hoplite implies Heroic too much for this color pair. The Azorius Charm -> Depose // Deploy swap might get undone at some point. I want the pairs that touch Izzet to offer spells that support Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot, and the split card interaction is really cool, so Depose // Deploy seems like a good fit.
Dance of the Manse and The Eighth Doctor are coming in since I noticed there's no support for the artifact theme here, plus the color pair was lacking a top end. Rory Williams comes in to just be a cheap threat, even if you have to wait for it. He seems just big enough to still be relevant by the time he actually hits the field.
(Note: These WHO cards aren't coming out of the decks, but from the collector booster sample packs that came with the decks. These could've come in a while ago, but I forgot about them lol)
Dimir
This pair was split between low cost and high cost cards, so I wanted to fill in some stuff that fit in the middle. The selection in that range was slimmer than I liked, but I think this works out alright. Focusing on some good value spells as this pair touches Izzet.
(Note: Hybrid cards are getting recategorized in the skeleton in a sorta Misc. Multicolor bucket along with the 4/5 color cards, which is why the multicolored sections like kinda funky.)
Rakdos
This pair loses 2 slots to the hybrid shift, so it's getting 4 new cards! This left 5 spells that 2 cost, a 3, a 4, and a 6. So I wanted to fill in the curve, similarly to Dimir. The selection was better, but not fantastic. The cards added favor a midrange-y burn strategy, which seems interesting.
Gruul
Super straightforward goodstuff adds for Gruul.
Selesnya
This pair had a weird gap at 3 mv, so this patches that up. Syr Armont, the Redeemer really isn't supported here. I do hope that Golden-Tail Trainer doesn't confuse people into thinking that auras and equipment are a big deal here. The last ability is really good with just counters!
Orzhov
This is probably getting the most changes. The effort to get mutate out of the cube continues. Finally including an orzhov card that Lurrus can recur. Bringing back Knights of the Black Rose as the better pick over Firja, Judge of Valor.
Izzet
I'm wanting another good artifact card for this pair, but don't have one available. So another spell payoff it is! Also The Locust God because I needed another top end card here.
Golgari
The return of Putrid Leech! Skyfisher Spider also good!
Boros
Again with the mutate thing. Plus more spells for Lilah. Plus filling out the upper part of the curve around the big spike at 5.
Simic
Similar themes of more spells touching Izzet and more top end threats (Especially here with Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty.)
Tricolor
Tuvasa for enchantments seems like a buildaround that fits bitter into the shard than lifegain with Shanna.
Voja doesn't have much if any support, but it's kind of a crazy threat nonetheless.
Big shakeup in Jeskai! Gavi was never amazing and gets worse every update as cycling support dries up. Jeskai Ascendancy has never really had a place and Narset does what Ascendancy is intended to do way better.
Pickings for Mardu and Grixis remain slim.
Misc. Multicolor
This category hits hybrid, 4/5 color cards, and other cards that are hard to categorize by color.
So this is where our companions have ended up!
I wanted at least one hybrid pick per color pair, which is where you have stuff like Mirrorweave and Vraska, Swarm's Eminence, which I hope are interesting buildarounds!
Yidris, and Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact are big ambitious cards I hope are good.
Flotsam // Jetsam and Hustle // Bustle are weird, kinda experimental cards. Bustle referring to face-down creatures isn't ideal since I've purposely not included any, but I don't think it'll be a big deal.
Just cracked three random packs of this set, and I’ve got more than 10 swaps! What a cool set.
White
Guidewing being an immediate explore trigger rather than a map drop is just enough of a friction point to justify the cut. Plus, vigilance doesn’t really matter on a 1 drop flier. Chumping is never something you want to do.
Cycling payoffs are starting to come out. There’s just not enough density to support them and I’m intending to make the cube even bigger in the future.
The adds are all about extra aggression, artifacts, enchantments, and counters. Just really good stuff that fits so nicely into what white is doing here.
Blue
Energy continues to make its way out of the cube.
There’s exactly one card that sacrifices enchantments in blue. It was never happening.
Triton Wavebreaker is so cool, can’t wait to see how this fits into the spells decks.
Specimen is a very weird card, but the floor of being a land is so high. I don’t know if this will stick long term, but I want to see if the front side will do anything at all here.
Black
Cuts here are mostly cards whose clunk factor was just a little too high to justify their spots.
Adds are about artifacts, sacrifice, sacrificing artifacts, and maybe going off with Retribution of the Ancients.
Red
Just one swap in red. Lightning Rift has not had enough support for a long time, and Precursor seems like it’ll slot quite nicely into existing decks.
Green
These are the toughest cuts for energy because they’re the ones that stand alone quite well. However! I’m working on a new project where energy will feature prominently! Stay tuned!
Hydra out, hydra in is a great little swap. Territory Culler seems messed up for an uncommon. Lion Umbra is a bit more speculative, but there’s so many ways to modify your creatures here, I’m not worried about it.
NOTE: I don’t have access to most of my cards right now so this is a quick update. I intend to find swaps for the rest of the energy cards when I get back.
Okay, so I ordered a couple of cards for the cube even though not buying cards specifically for the cube is one of the rules of the cube. But guess what? The only one who cares about the rules is me, so there.
Black
I FINALLY GOT A TROLL OF KHAZAD-DUM, YOU GUYS.
There's not enough enchantments that naturally self sacrifice in black for Ashiok's Reaper to be worth it. The main way of binning enchantments is with bargain and that's just too many hoops in this environment.
Green
Cutting out clunky top end cards that never get played because there's better options.
Fall of Gil-galad and Sylvan Anthem have a very specific thing they're trying to support...
Multicolor
There's not really good targets for Kiora's Follower in green or blue that isn't just ramping. Domain hasn't really taken off as a strategy despite having decent support in the manabase.
...SCRY ELVES!!! I've been dying to get Elrond and Arwen into this cube ever since the LTR prerelease because they're just so dang fun. So I've been seeding scry payoffs into these colors as I've gotten them. I felt like I was only a couple of cards off from feeling like I have enough to support it, so I grabbed them at the same time I was grabbing the Troll.
Lands
Swapping a bunch of the monocolor lands (which ends up being a bunch of cycling lands) for another cycle of dual lands. Also swapping out a couple of the DMU typed duals for better ones. Adding a bunch of Temples helps the scry theme. Marsh Flats is a notable include, probably immediately becoming the best land in the cube, since there's a bunch of typed duals, making it a potential five color land if properly built around.
Swept the prerelease with a Gruul deck doing a little bit of everything: crime, mounts, outlaws, spree, and plotting. Picked up some sweet stuff in my prize packs.
White
Addressing cuts first: I'm souring a bit on cards like Heartflame Duelist that are secretly gold. This one especially since it really doesn't have much if any support in white. Basically none of white's removal is damage based here. Arashin Foremost signals warrior tribal when it's not otherwise supported. Ghostblade Eidolon kinda sucks on either end. And Extricator of Sin signals delirium in white when there's no other graveyard stuff in the color, really.
Adds are just decent cards. A removal spell, a combat trick, a go-wide payoff, and a neat equipment.
Blue
I've decided to cut the cards that are really only here to support Weight Advantage. It really doesn't need the help. Shu Yun is another secret gold card. I could see Hithlain Knots and/or Ioreth coming back, but more Knots than Ioreth.
Blue's got some spicy spell shenanigans coming in! A couple of snapcaster variants in Newt and Lockpicker. Razzle-Dazzler is a cool evasive threat if you can keep up a flow of spells, Nimble Brigand is similar but with a different incentive. Blast, Interference, and This Town are just neat interactive spells. Spree is very cool.
Black
Heart is super clunky when there's not a lot of external blood production. The cube has become more about artifact token sacrifice than nontoken artifact sacrifice, so Requisitioner doesn't feel like it fits. Mycoid's tokens not being able to block make the payoff a lot weaker than it looks. Regicide as the one draft matters card kinda needs to go. And of course, Disowned Ancestor was only really here for Weight Advantage. Which, again, does NOT need the help
The Black adds are just neat cards, it's very likely they'll all come out eventually. I'm most hopeful for Servant of the Stinger.
Red
Goblin Tomb Raider has the weird problem of being bad on turn 1 and bad on turn 5. The sweet spot is like turn 3 but it's not really great there. Sprouting Goblin has less of the secret gold problem, but it's still there. It and Ratcatcher Trainee are the most likely to return. Yearling signals dino tribal where there aren't really incidental dinos. Erkenbrand may seem to have that problem but there are a bunch of incidental humans. It's also on the list of possible returns. Meria's Outrider is too much setup for too little payoff. Ryusei can be very easily turned into a liability.
Red gets some of my favorite adds!
Reckless Lackey is the opposite of Goblin Tomb Raider, great on turn 1 and pretty good on turn 5! It's only really bad in the middle when it's already outclassed but you don't have the room to sac it yet, but that first strike can keep a bunch of X/1s off your back.
Skewer is another great burn spell, and it looks really good in this treatment.
Highway Robbery is one of the best versions of this effect, letting you sac a land means you don't need to keep lands in hand in anticipation of drawing it and the plot makes it easier to deploy the cards you draw off of it.
Magda pays you off (literally) for committing crimes, plus she takes advantage of a lot of treasure creation already in the format.
Crackle with Power is a fantastic design that's so flashy on every level and dares you to make it great. Very glad to get my hands on one.
Great Train Heist is wacky and weird and I can't wait to see what it does. Using it to stack a bunch of treasure to cash in to Magda is a dream I want to live so badly (and almost got to do at the prerelease).
Demonic Feels a smidge redundant with the new Convenient Target but I want to see if a sorta pseudo-heroic mini-archetype can work out.
Brimstone Roundup is mostly here because I really like the Mercenary tokens. They play super well.
Green
Not a ton of changes here. Colossal Growth is another secret gold card. Brave the Wilds has some synergy points but it doesn't feel like the deck that wants to bargain is also the deck that wants to animate its own lands. Hamlet Glutton might make it's way back.
Stacking up a bunch of temporary buffs on a creature and then casting Tumbleweed Rising feels awesome. Tumblewagg seems fantastic. Rambling Possum is a great beater that can create sweet value loops while getting in big hits.
Multicolor
Dimir Charm's utility is so narrow, and most of the time it doesn't feel worth reading. Tyrant's Scorn has a much more specific focus and thus feels like it has a real role.
Knights of the Black Rose has a weird problem where the bulk of its power is in the monarch trigger, but feels overcosted for that ability, even though it's also a sizeable body. Though the body conflicts with the last ability by being the better deterrent to taking the monarchy. It's a design that has tension with itself and doesn't see much play for that reason, even though it's a good card. Ruthless Lawbringer is probably less powerful but much more direct in its function and also just cheaper, making it feel more streamlined and thus feel more powerful.
Whirler Virtuoso signals energy really hard, even though it supports artifact tokens by itself. There's still a smattering of monocolor energy cards plus a couple of colorless ones, but hopefully they read as a pocket strat rather than a full on deck. Lilah is a very cool card, and there's enough multicolor instants and sorceries to support her, I think. She definitely prefers being in 3 colors rather than 2. Maintaining a few I/S slots in Grixis, Jeskai, and Temur will need to be a conscious effort as the natural momentum for multicolor slots is to move towards permanents.
Putrid Leech and Mortality Spear are two of the three Golgari cards to signal lifegain as an archetype, but I think cutting down that signaling is fine. Putrid Leech is just a good beater, though, which is a shame to lose. It's the more likely card to return. Vraska Joins Up pushes the legend tribal theme, and Honest Rutstein in a legend who's just good value.
Tori feels wordy for little impact and does next to nothing while behind. Ertha Jo is a very cool buildaround and seems to have a lot of support already, plus she helps stabilize by bringing an extra body along and being very defensively stated.
Woolly Thoctar used to be a good beater for its cost, but the color requirements eclipse the body and make it not worth running. Annie Joins Up serves as both a reasonable removal spell and another signal for the legendary tribal theme.
Colorless
I don't love Scampering Surveyor calling out Caves in an environment without them. Blade of the Bloodchief's removal has honestly been a long time coming. Gold Pan provides two permaments, both token and nontoken, and ramps while leaving value behind. Sword of Wealth and Power is a very powerful card and also pushes a spellslinger theme.
Played Rakdos splashing Simic to get enough creatures at the prerelease. I played no rares and went 2-1. Not a ton of great stuff, but some stuff worth noting. The set is cool, but my pulls kinda weren't.
White
No changes.
Blue
I like all of these cards! Just reinforcing the artifact tokens going on here.
Deciding to whittle down on the energy theme. It's my favorite mechanic, but I think it will do better as its own project down the line.
Black
Long Goodbye and Soul Enervation seem good. Lead Pipe and Outrageous Robbery might be too clunky, but we'll see.
Just bringing down the curve here with cuts.
Red
Bringing in some decent cheap cards and trimming down on energy.
Green
Nothing really special here, just some decent effects with a little extra synergy.
Paleontologist was a mistake to put in here. There's only NINE dinosaurs in the whole cube. And of course, Attune is part of cutting back on energy.
Multicolor
The one card I'm not expecting to stick is Break Out. The others seem cool!
Sharae signals stuff that isn't really there. Phenax has never been good. Voltaic Brawler, again, cutting back on energy. Hofri is going to another project. Decisive Denial isn't really good enough and Trygon is a little too good at busting through a board state.
Land
I'm really looking forward to using this land cycle! Scene of the crime also seems neat, at least.
Strict upgrades for several lands here. Tocasia's Dig Site has always sucked. Being good in one prerelease tricked me!
Swept the prerelease with selesnya splashing red for Quintorius. This set is super sweet! Got some great includes for here.
White
Confident adds are Evangelist, Sawblades, and Pup. Evangelist is an army in a can with a pump for that army. Sawblades is flexible, but still conditional removal that conditionally flips into a good threat. Pup has a ton of utility at instant speed on a good body.
Get Lost, Glyphbridge, and Tinker's Tote are just under those. Get Lost is very flexible, but the tradeoff of two relevant game pieces (compared to the one that most of this kind of removal gives) is very relevant. Board wipes with blind spots can be spooky as a control player, but then turning into an evasive threat with further protection built in is really cool. Tinker's Tote is very cool and fits along a lot of synergistic axes. The only issue is not really being efficient at most of them. Three mana for three game pieces is definitely something, but only two of those can attack or block. It gains life but isn't actually a Food for the cards that care about that.
None of the others are what I what term experimental, they're just less confident. Aspirant is a better rate than most similar cards but might just be too low impact. Dawnrunner is a double striker with upside but might be a little inconsistent. Guardian being an effective six mana with not-quite-convoke and improvise is potentially strong but could end up too clunky. Bricks is a good early card for controlling synergy decks and includes a top end threat but might not be good enough in either role. Guidewing gets in early damage and can be traded for additional value, but down the line might end up cut for something flashier.
Overall, white has some very solid adds that I expect to stick around.
As for cuts, the most likely returns would be Archangel, Silkwrap, and Flourishing Fox.
Confident cuts are Decree of Justice and Akroma's Vengeance.
Blue
Blue's adds really reinforce the importance of artifacts, as well as just bringing the curve down a bit. I wouldn't say that I'm especially confident on anything here. The ones I would most expect to see go in the future are Nautilus and the two Scouts, just for being kinda junky. Though I do hope we get an explore deck out of the Scouts.
Realizing that I was cutting all three of the common off-color kicker cards from DMU was a little sad. They're cool cards, but the un-kicked modes just weren't worth it a lot of the time, meaning they were effectively gold. The only decks Pixie got into were Domain decks, which is what it's there for but not good enough by itself.
Adjudicator, Oddity, and Squirter are just too clunky for their slots, in spite of promises of cool/powerful interactions. So is Aethersquall Ancient, but I love that big dumb whale, so that made me sad.
Contemplation was a bit do-nothing and there hasn't been enough of a flicker deck for Impostor to really work in.
Hampering Snare and Jhessian Thief might actually be the cards most likely to come back, which is weird to say.
Black
The adds here aren't actually amazing, I'm not confident on the long term sticking power of any of them. It's graveyard stuff and the creature equivalent of bauble-y artifacts. Could be fun though!
Cutting some clunk, lowering the curve. Doom Blade getting randomly blanked based on matchup sucks. Tormentor is a cool design but isn't threatening enough. Kamber is a little slow. Common Homelands L. Pitiless Plunderer coming out because I want to put it in a commander deck, lol.
Red
Red's getting a bit more efficient, getting some DINOS and PIRATES, getting some more graveyard and artifact stuff. Abrade is a deserved staple that I can finally stick in here.
Volatile Wanderglyph is here entirely because of LSV. If it sucks, I blame him.
Trimming down on clunk. Recent games have pointed out that red might have a couple too many board wipes. So here's to that.
Green
Green's probably the most experimental this go-round. Pushing explore and maybe some dinos? Beast Whisperer was my promo card from the store at the prerelease. Paleontologist might actually be stupid to put in here.
Cutting stuff that wasn't really doing anything. Titanoth Rex is probably the most likely card to come back. Kinda depends on how well a cheat archetype shakes out with stuff like Doors and Conquest.
Colorless
Buried Treasure is a cool bauble with some graveyard value. Sunbird Standard is a sweet multicolor payoff. Scampering Surveyor and Cartographer's Companion are nice value creatures. Runaway Boulder is hilarious, and cycling is really valuable here (especially since a handful of cycling cards are getting cut).
Cutting some builarounds that read like traps. And Excavated Wall.
Multicolor
Love to get a good multicolor walker in here. Akawalli is a really beater for graveyard decks. The Belligerent is kinda suspect, but might be really sweet.
Zenith Flare feels like it actually does nothing. Like it's a blank card. Deathless Knight's color requirements are too strict for what it does. Jori En is cool but doesn't get much attention (also Izzet is a bit too centralized at two and three cost).
Blue
For adds, blue is getting some enchantment support, some as extensions of the extant spells theme. Plus a little bit of bargain synergy (Hatching Plans is so cool for that). Sage of Hours was one I hadn't initially included because I wasn't sure if it would do anything. It still might not do anything but it sure does combo with Ezuri, Claw of Progress!
For removals, the only real regrets I have are Vizier, Horses, and Soulblade. Maybe Slither Blade and Neutralize. Genestealer needing to attack and generally survive to do anything sucks. Getting rid of Coral Colony was a "FINALLY" for me. Symmetry Sage might come back, the power boost on other creatures either does nothing or isn't good. Attacking as a 2 power flier is cool though.
Black
Big shifts for black! Really wanting enchantments to be a thing here. Return of cool enchantment payoff Daxos's Torment! This color also has the largest number of outlets for bargaining. Being able to sac artifacts means these cards can also lean into existing themes nicely. Cards I have my eye on are Conceited Witch and Vampiric Rites.
Aristocrat and Patron come out for signaling vampire tribal more than I'd like. Horror only got by for so long on being a 1 mana cycler. Despise sucks because it only hits stuff that black is good at removing the battlefield already. Downfall is getting replaced with Go for the Throat. Stuff likely to come back are Rescue and Feast.
Red
Red's includes are less about theme and more about power level. Except Imodane, she seems like a cool way for a red control deck to continue to control the board while closing the game out.
The cuts are just kinda clunky stuff that hasn't panned out. I could see Claim coming back. The non-cycling self-discard stuff is trending toward going out.
Green
There's some speculative adds here, the most extreme of which is probably Tanglespan Lookout. Green only has four auras including Utopia Sprawl, and no role cards in green are being added here (since I only opened one and it was Redtooth Genealogist). Green getting bargain cards and some graveyard stuff here. Regrowth being particularly exciting here. More counters, more food. Seasons of Growth is cool for combat trickery, and with it I feel like I only need a couple more good green scry cards to bring in the scry payoffs from LTR.
Cuts are again about clunk and narrow cards. Cards I'd like to maybe bring back or will maybe miss are Shambler, Courage, Tusker, and Primal Druid (that one mostly for Weight Advantage). I want a Shoot Down-alike card in here somewhere, debating between grabbing the food or scry one. Axebane Guardian and Portcullis Vine are some of the best standalone defender payoffs, Assault Formation is Weight Advantage at home. Haruspex is too expensive as either a ramp card or a growing crats payoff, the combination isn't great. Inspiring Call is crazy upside for counters decks but a little too narrow as a buildaround. Puzzleknot was a bit of a pet card for enabling energy, but it's time for it to go.
Bigger update than I expected it to be! WOE is full of goodies! (Quite thematic!) Definitely don't expect them all to play out, but should be fun to figure out!