+34 -30 cards.

This update brings a general reduction in the average casting cost to each multicolor section, and the inclusion of some of the most powerful threats and efficient removal spells that have been printed in the last few years.

I think there's a significant number of cards are getting swapped that will really change what gets main-decked, and what actually has a chance to get cast during a game. Anything over 3 mana is much less likely to either make the main deck (competing with powerful 4-drops in main colors) or have the chance to be cast due to the nature of play sequencing. Having more spells at the 2- and 3- mana value range will make sequencing decisions more important.

I'm a big fan of the modal spells (Rip Apart, Prismari Command) and there's some build-arounds in here too (Lurrus of the Dream-Den, Fiend Artisan) plus some good old-fashioned fun (Yusri, Fortune's Flame).

Removing Azorius Signet might be wrong, but already I'm awash with great Azorius cards that I want to play and/or test, and I've even forgotten to acquire a Scheming Fence.

Nothing to crazy here.

Trying out a few of the new Sword cycle (removing Light/Shadow will conveniently make each color represented equally). Removing some middling vehicles and adding other equipment that's well-received in the cube community.

Since I'm adding the remainder of the Talisman cycle, I'm removing some other mana rocks.

Things to look out for in the future will be how well represented the colorless mana production is for some of the colorless-required mana costs in the cube, and if I want to add any more support at the high-end for Eldrazi-style creatures (reanimator, Selvala's Stampede, green ramp, etc.). I might like Scuttling Doom Engine back in considering it's fun with Goblin Welder.

typo fix

+41 -35 cards

Green gets a major shakeup with a lower disenchant curve and more/better top-end threats. I may want to swap a few of the 3-mana ramping elves back in at some point, but I think I'm happy overall with the amount of utility green is getting in terms of low cost card selection as well. I'm very happy to have The Great Henge, Gaea's Cradle, and Chord of Calling in as some premiere payoffs. Thrun is out for now. I don' think most people are happy playing with or against it, and I may also be expanding my Sword of X and Y collection. This goes along with the changes in white where I removed some creatures with protection for similar reasons.

+35 -30 cards.

I'm quite amazed at how difficult this ended up being, as I have always been a little less attached to most of my red cards compared to other colors. Most of them are either aggro creatures or burn spells, and it was surprising at how tight the competition still gets in this color.

Red has gained a lot from its new forays into pseudo-card advantage, and from more versatile utility cards. There are also a couple new hard-hitters like Embercleave and Ragavan.

+36 -31 cards -- A difficult set of changes with lots of slight upgrades.

For creatures, we are largely trading some creatures with undying/persist-style effects, for stronger on-board threats, more rats-style discard, and planeswalkers. The larger threats at the 4+ mana value mark had some creatures I wasn't extremely happy with and those are now more resilient or powerful options, which is good if the early plays are less resilient than before (or filled with grindy ways of removing your opponent's options to kill the finishers).

There's a whole new suite of removal available, and I'm making the hard decision to remove a lot of classic spells like Doom Blade, Terror, and Chainer's Edict, in favor of clearly better options that are more versatile and don't have anti black/artifact drawbacks.

Two of my main concerns going forward are the increasing number of cards that feature life loss as a drawback to more abilities, and lack of card draw in black to offset a lot of symmetric (or payment-based) discard effects. I'd like to get more Blood Artist effects in here, which will play well with the existing number of creature fodder (i.e. Rats) and Braids, Cabal Minion.

A small amount of care was placed in emphasizing Zombies and Humans in the low mana value ranges for purposes of keeping cards like Gravecrawler relevant. I'd like for more Zombies with my play style that aren't parasitic. Vampires are well represented, which might play well with some red cards that care about Vampires.

+37 -31 cards -- Not quite as many changes as white, but quite a few nonetheless!

Many of these are upgrades in similar design space as their replacements. There are a couple fewer tempo bounce creatures (man-o'-war) but many power and toughness upgrades for the same mana value. There are new 2 cmc tempo counterspells and cheap draw. We're losing a bit of the graveyard enablers (Thirst, Forbidden Alchemy, Frantic Search, etc.) but I believe upgrades in black and red will continue making them sufficient for reanimator support (white gained a few cheap discard outlets as well, so we'll see what happens). Going to try out Show and Tell. It's a big cube, so it could be fun, or could be very ineffective.

I'm hoping these changes will make blue be able to stand on its own a little bit more, and planeswalker upgrades give it a little more effective artifact synergies.

+44 -39 cards!

Making huge changes across the board, there's a significant power level update in the 2cmc range, and in my midrange threats, which have gone from more a more token oriented package to a more ETB and planeswalker focused package.

I've removed a lot of creatures with Protection, and added many that affect the rules, making white a little bit more of a roleplayer in disrupting your opponent. Kinjalli's Sunwing and Archon of Emeria didn't make it in this time, but they're waiting "in the wings". ;)

Will of the Council and Palace Jailer have multiplayer-centric rules text that I've never been too crazy about, and I don't see them as important enough to stick around just for that reason. There are similarly strong cards in the same play space available to us (even if not quite the same as an untargetable vindicate).

I'm curious to see where I land on the number of wraths after all these changes are made (to each color). Damn is obviously powerful and could go either in white (similar to Lingering Souls) or Orzhov. There are like 5-7 new wrath's that are in a similar power band as Fumigate as well, all at 4-5 mana with varying benefits and drawbacks (Doomskar, Scatter the Sky, etc.)

If you have any comments or suggestions, leave a reply!