Molt Tender looks like it was designed for exactly Forbidden Trash, so I was excited to see it spoiled. I am curious how good it ends up being. It's worse at ramping than Arbor Elf, and it's slow if you're trying to fill your graveyard, but it's good fixing, and I'm really excited to see it in a deck that is looking at the top of your library, which is a pretty big theme here.

Territorial Allosaurus is a really clean card, but it's not in dialogue with anything else going on in the cube, so it's not too difficult of a goodbye.

Oh, by the way, I wrote a thing about how it might be more useful to think about attention instead of complexity. It's over on my blog.

I have had very little time to physically touch Magic cards (arms too full of baby), but finally had some time to reconcile this cube.

Before the last time we drafted I added a handful of cards without reflecting the change here. Then, after the draft I identified some cards to cut.

These are not polished changes, this is straight up "I want these cards gone and I want these cards in" without considering how they fit in curves or effect density or anything. That tuning will need to come later.

I generally really like efficient interaction. I like players to be able to mess with each others' plans and I like the downward pressure on boardstates. However, I want these games to focus more on weird degeneracy. There's nothing weird about Swords to Plowshares, it just shuts down threats.

There's still a bunch of good interaction, but I'm keeping it more closely aligned to the themes of the cube. With that in mind, our capricious friend is back:

I had cut Hymn to be Tourach to make room for Chain of Smog, but with these cuts to black. In the first couple drafts H2T felt very strong, but totally appropriate. I could always be wrong, but I think this helps Forbidden Trash exemplify itself.

Temporal Trespass, Last Chance, and Medomai the Ageless join Second Chance as our extra turns suite. I like them--especially Temporal's Delve and and Last Chance's downside--more than Second Chance, and hope they collectively contribute to the feel of the cube as somewhere outside normal limited.

I won with the Leonin Lightscribe + Chain of Smog combo, and decided to break it up. Smog is the more problematic card, but I think it fits here better, so Lightscribe is the cut.

Fling comes into make your own Channel Fireball with Wall of Blood.

• Powerbalance did nothing, and I suspect that will be the case too often
• Magus of the Candelabra was awful, even in a deck with land auras
• Foundry Inspector has been a boring piece of the perfectly good artifacts decks. Could come back.
• Goblin Charbelcher hasn't done anything. I dunno, maybe I'll give it another shot.
• Ipnu Rivulet has been mostly worse than an Island.

Thrill of Possibility and Beastrider Vanguard come in to help smooth draws. Scrying and surveiling has been really good, so I think these cards may end up being really undervalued. Beastrider especially is expensive but can potentially provide a lot of value for a big mana deck that would otherwise have difficulty finding the right spells to cast.

• Thieving Skydiver provides another Colossus Hammer enabler, or just interaction with the artifacts deck.
• Bag of Holding provides card selection for every deck, with bonuses for artifacts and especially Madness decks.
• Seat of the Synod is yet another easy step towards Metalcraft and Affinity.
• Allosaurus Rider is a dumb scaling idiot that you don't have to pay for. Sounds good.

I realized I definitely have some more cards stashed somewhere to go in this (including, most excitingly, Molt Tender), I want to give white something to make up for Swords being gone, and I think I need to bump the creature counts (maybe at least in Naya) up a bit. It's endless, but each step gets this closer to what it's trying to be.

Four cuts here that are really reasonable glue cards, but fail to properly evoke the Forbidden as I envision it (despite the promise of the black instant).

Wall of Blood is added as a recursor to a Fling combo, when I find another copy.

Desert is less mechanically appropriate than Dig Site, but it feels Forbidden. Very willing to cut it if it is just too effective at preventing attacks.

Mutagenic Growth is just perfect: an unfair trick that should make progress the board state, or trigger Prowess, or push up the storm count. I'm expecting most decks to want this, and for it to play a little differently.

Reality Smasher (like Wumpus Aberration) is an efficient early payoff for Cloudpost or "fair" Channel that gets weird because your opponent probably wants to discard cards.

Alright, got some good hits in Face to Face's clearance binders, and some of those are going into Forbidden Trash!

But first!

Sam from Rhystic Studies posted a new article to his Substack today, in which he called my article about making this cube one of "exactly two published pieces this year that rose above the noise and contributed, in some form, to [Magic's] history and culture" which is one of the most amazing compliments I've ever received. You should subscribe to his Substack! As evidenced by my catching it immediately it's a must-read!

All three changes are 1-for-1 replacements that help the cube embody itself better.

Hymn to Tourach felt appropriately mean. However, Chain of Smog removes a little of the feel bad of the random discard, and trades it for a chaotic minigame of copies and copies of copies. It's beautiful, and I'm gonna replace Chain Lightning with Chain of Plasma as soon as I have a copy on hand.

Burning-Tree Emissary did nothing wrong, but Manamorphose provides support for three colour decks, keeps cards flowing, and most importantly helps enable the Storm and Prowess decks. It raises the ceiling on shenanigans.

I hadn't previously included Teferi's Puzzle Box due to budget, but it was always on my mind. Grafted Skullcap is one of a bunch of cards that don't feel good enough at 4 mana, so it won't be missed. The Puzzle Box gives a similar experience but makes it symmetrical. It loses the discard element, but it's more unique, and I can't wait to see it in action.

Blessed Respite broke the spirit

Courser of Kruphix is great (maybe not as great as Augur of Autumn)

Once Upon a Time is broken (appropriate)

I borrowed Noose Constrictor, it will be back

I borrowed Kiln Fiend. Harmonic Prodigy is pinch hitting, but Kiln Fiend should be here.

More burn and spells, more weird interactions (Dcam, Chain Lightning), less Jaya playing like a planeswalker, less FtK rules clarification ("it's a must")

Murderous Cut is borrowed out.

Braids was too hard to break parity on.

Oona's Prowler is a symmetrical Madness Outlet, which might be wild

Hypnotic Specter is mean (appropriate)

Cloud of Faeries belongs here, but I pulled it into Pink Sleeves.

Tinker adds shuffling. It feels right. So does Second Chance.

Shoreline Looter has Threshold, maybe that feels more on brand than Merfolk Looter, but also it attacks.

Final- word Phantom is only a little unfair, by Man-o'-War wasn't really at home here, I just like the Portal art.

Planar Collapse is weirder than Shatter the Sky.

Angel's Grace is exactly this cube. Calamity's Wake is unnecessary. Approach of the Second Sun is sort of this cube.

Stonecloaker makes you think a choice matters that doesn't.

There aren't high Crew costs for Hotshot Mechanic to help with.

Cataclysmic Gearhulk adds some small game top end.

Maelstrom Colossus gives another big thing, Scrabbling Claws gives cheap grave hate. Foundry Inspector and Disk do what they do.

Signal Pest wasn't a great fit. Crani Archive was breaking the rules. Tormod's Cryptkeeper isn't lovable. Mask of Memory feels too safe, even if it isn't really.

Shadowfax raised a question about Horse tribal. Bruenor is friends with Colossus Hammer