Time for another update, although we only managed to play one more (three player) game with this cube since the last update.

I'm making cuts that I've been thinking about for a while now, mainly reducing board wipes and cards that just haven't seen any play in all the games to date (including four commanders!). Also I'm adding cards from a wider pool of Options now as I'm not limiting these changes to what I happen to have in my current collection.

One factor in my decision making is that our cube games have consistently lasted over an hour, and I want to work towards enabling faster games. Mainly because drafting and deck building takes us around 50 minutes, essentially replacing one of the 3 (occasionally 4) games we can get in when we play on a week night$^1$.

$^1$: Our "normal" Commander games also typically last anywhere between 1h - 1h30 so maybe we're just slow players or our decks overall are just not "explosive" enough to close games? Anyway, that's a topic for another day...

I won't go through every single card, but I think the overarching aim is radically reducing the number of board wipes in the cube. Last time we had three board wipes in our game (+ Massacre Wurm so arguably four) - sure, perhaps this was an outlier game, but it nudged me enough to make these changes now.

So I've taken out most board wipes and left only a few that are asymmetrical in nature such as Disrupt Decorum or Massacre Wurm. I decided to add Aetherize as a more situational, but asymmetrical pseudo board wipe and I left Nevinyrral's Disk as a colourless option and because that one you "see coming" so at least it gives players a chance to interact before it untaps.

I've also taken out Cyclonic Rift despite its asymmetrical nature, because I fear it could lead to "feel bad" moments as there's little effective counter play here.

To avoid the reduced board wipes resulting in sticky board stalls that also end up dragging out the game, I tried to add more cards that enable attacks or disrupt opponents' blockers and creatures in other ways, building on changes I made last time. This includes for example Bident of Thassa, Atraxa's Skitterfang, Bothersome Quasit, or just more evasive threats such as Bonehoard Dracosaur or Lady of Laughter.

Swapping four Commanders is arguably a change that warrants to be talked about before anything else but I was just more bothered about the board wipe situation to be honest.

Anyway, I'm swapping Commanders that haven't seen play to hopefully entice their respective colour combinations to see more play:

Brago, King Eternal might end up being too strong, but at the same time the "Blink" archetype has not really seen play so far, we'll see if Brago changes that.

Rakdos, the Muscle comes in as an attempt at a more enticing Commander for Rakdos Sacrifice, another colour pair that has not yet seen any real play.

Soul of Windgrace replaces Lord Windgrace (thanks @samuraisaktio for the suggestion), again just to switch things up a bit as Jund's not seen any play yet either.

Finally, Atla Palani, Nest Tender was always bit of a shoe-in just to have a Commander for Naya colours, but the new Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds seems interesting and I want to give it a try in this cube where there's plenty of tokens being generated.

A brief note on Purphoros, God of the Forge: I worry it could dominate games, but so far it has yet to really "pop off". However, I am adding more exile removal into the cube to balance the scales a bit against him and the other two gods in the cube.

Ok I said I want games to end quicker and now I'm talking about removing win cons from the cube, but I'm trying to replace win cons such as Akroma's Will or Triumph of the Hordes with ones that feel more "fair" and less "out of nowhere".

I'm cutting a bunch of cards that I thought might be good utility or "glue" pieces but they just never saw play and I never found myself putting them in any of my decks. This includes largely artifacts such as Panharmonicon or Conjurer's Closet, so I'm taking these out just to put more interesting cards in, for example Nazgul Battle-Mace was a card I only came across today which seems like a good fit to encourage more combat action.

I must admit I've not really kept up with the latest sets and releases, I drafted MKM twice and have been casually browsing reddit for spoilers but large parts of MKM, PIP, and OTJ (plus all the respective bonus sets and commander sets etc. etc.) I have not had the mental energy/drive to look through. Also, I don't want to introduce too many keyworded mechanics into the cube as one-offs and have one random creature with "Disguise" or one lonely card with "Saddle" or whatever as that will just increase overall complexity and make games and board states harder to track for everyone involved.

Another thought I've been toying with in the back of my head was potentially dropping the colour identity restriction for decks in this cube, just to enable more splashes and more diverse decks. However, a) colour identity seems like a core thing that makes Commander... well, Commander and b) our POD is still unexperienced in all things Limited Magic so the restriction of colours in a way adds "guard rails" and perhaps makes it easier for us to "know what to draft" instead of ending up with "aimless soup" decks every time. I might try it as a one off at some point in future!

Queen Marchesa
Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir
Zimone and Dina