Color Rundown White

There were very few changes to white itself, but a shift in my hybrid philosophy is likely to have noticeable impact on white aggro decks. I previously used many hybrid cards to assist in building multicolor aggro. Since artifact/modular aggro is a significant part of the cube's identity, I stripped many of the hybrids out and replaced them with colorless artifact dudes. Some are opinionated about which colors they are best in, like simian simulacrum or phyrexian dragon engine, but they can really go anywhere. When it comes to aggro, I believe that density is a primary concern, and quality secondary. Getting there on playables is always most important. Shifting more 1 drops to the colorless slot also struck me as a slot efficient way to support multicolor aggro without tanking the draft for a group where fewer players are inclined to play aggro.

Blue

Most changes here are card quality tuning. The most directional change is adding a smattering of more control dedicated cards, like primordial mist, memory deluge, archmage's charm, and vedalken shackles. Previously I had felt that blue in a control deck was a means to draw into your wraths, which was a bit dull and limited variety. I wanted blue itself to have reasons to play control, instead of just being lubricant.

Black

Updates to dredge and discard tools. Stinkweed imp was long overdue, and golgari thug to a lesser extent. Scourge of Nel Toth seemed fun enough, so I mashed it in. The push of artifacts as the primary flavor of aggro in the cube has given black aggro a bit of an identity crisis, since there isn't a lot of great support for that in the black 1 drop slot. Some half measure compromises like triarch praetorian and phyrexian fleshgorger (big stinky with dark confidant, sorin the mirthless and pact weapon) have been made, but I still want more, and I just don't think the options are there yet. Still probably a decent deck though.

Red

Red is probably the crown jewel section of this cube, and this update is the most fun yet as the realization of what I began in the last round of updates. I've fully leaned into looting and discard as the identity of red, and it can rip stuff into the graveyard like none other. Key inclusions are Glint-Horn Buccaneer and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. My impulse draw options have largely been cut in favor of rummaging and looting effects that are often of lower quality in a vacuum, but you don't notice because the synergies tend to make up for it. There's still tuning to do with these since there are so many options.

The biggest win was the emergence of a fast but value oriented boros/mardu unearth pile style deck. I leaned into it and pushed etbs like viashino pyromancer, flametongue yearling, and the return of the king, vexing devil.

Burn got some minor numbers adjustments. Damage should go face and spell choices better reflect that. Ramunap Ruins is a display of my commitment to groan inducing linear gameplay for the sickos who enjoy it (me).

Green

Hardened Scales and friends. The success of modular aggro has lead me to retool the Naya section, pushing +1/+1 counters as the primary pillar of green. The more traditional big dudes zoo is being phased out in favor of the green parts of the aggro decks taking more of a backseat. A Naya aggro deck is likely best constructed as green splash Boros. This is fine, because all of those counter synergies can come together to assemble a base green big dudes midrange deck, so it's a win-win. Notable additions include Quirion Beastcaller, Conclave Mentor and Defiler of Vigor. While not green, The Ozolith is getting a test run too. The rest are mostly on testing probation. Pest Infestation should be in but someone forgot to order it.

Colorless

Mostly view this as an extension of other colors, but overall BRO was good for adding options to this. Phyrexian Dragon Engine is the most spicy with welder/engineer decks and the myriad of P/T buffs available to it. Most everything else was already mentioned or is serving the purposes of some color section above.

Extra notes What does Dimir even do? Simic?

I'm not really feeling it for these pairings. They're probably fine on card quality, but the Sultai colors together don't really 'own' anything unique. There's some self mill value stuff going on, and stuff like Uro, but I don't really have a reason to be excited about these or the gold cards I've put in them. They're both sort of lesser expressions of what Golgari does.

I couldn't resist Lurrus any longer lol

lmao even