Hey cubers! Today I’m making a big change to my cube - 58 cards! There are two driving forces behind this update.

One is a deluge of changes I’ve been waiting to make after my list was locked in for CubeCon. After FOUR roto drafts of my cube, and several drafts of the same list, I’ve been exposed to a lot of other players’ card evaluations in a very face-up way.

The other is the announcement of the Arena Powered Cube. First of all, this added about 20 new cards to Arena, 16 of which are included in today’s update. Also, with an official cube intentionally showcasing the most powerful cards on-client, I feel less pressure to push the power level of my own cube, and more incentive to encourage unique, synergistic decks.

The ethos of this cube has not changed - it will always be about powerful cards and the synergies they encourage.

So let’s get into the changes! The most notable change is scraping off the upper crust of power outliers - Ocelot Pride, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Barrowgoyf, Gut, True Soul Zealot, and Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury are getting the axe. Also gone is Elspeth, Storm Slayer, which is not exactly top-10 (top 50 for sure), but is a card I find incredibly grating (does it really need that -3?).

Another important power outlier getting the axe - Reanimate. I’m subbing in Life // Death as a slightly tamer animate, accompanying Necromancy and Persist. Reanimator is an important archetype in my cube, and my hope is that this swap tones things down without nerfing the deck.
I won’t talk about every card in this update, or we’d be here all day, but I will run through a couple of notable changes.

Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber is leaving as the one Demon “payoff”. A number of demons remain (Blade of the Oni, Archfiend of the Dross), but the Demon synergy was a little too subdued.
A number of Domain payoffs are leaving - Leyline Binding, Tribal Flames. A lot harder to maximize these without Triomes. Territorial Kavu remains.

Some individual cuts - Sink into Stupor might be surprising, as it has serious Constructed chops, but blue already has two utility lands and its effect vs the cost is just a little too off-balance in limited. I had high hopes for Displacer Kitten, combo included, but it’s just too fragile and narrow. Satya, Aetherflux Genius is certainly “good enough”, but no one ever played him over multiple months (this was not the case for other 3c cards like Raffine, Scheming Seer). Kaldra Compleat I thought would be a slam dunk, but it only works with Stoneforge Mystic (not Cloud) and is unlikely to ever be played otherwise.

Some notable adds. A few cool graveyard hate pieces are coming in - Sungold Sentinel, Lion Sash, and Misery's Shadow. Players were clamoring for Mana Tithe and Force Spike. Amped Raptor is a card I’m excited to try again - high deckbuilding requirement, high reward.

Some green updates. I had been trying to support a 2-drop centric stompy deck, but after some thought, a more successful proactive green deck is going to be focused on a 1-3 skip. Surrak, Elusive Hunter and Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel should be boons for that deck, as are Sylvan Safekeeper and Polukranos, World Eater. Birthing Ritual is a potentially sweet build-around I’d like to see in action. Exploration is a card I was initially skeptical on, but probably shouldn’t have been.
Gold cards I’m excited for - Invasion of Amonkhet is a sort of signpost towards a more midrange UB deck, Flame of Anor is an interesting semi-build around, and Polukranos, Unchained and Escape to the Wilds are just sweet.

I intentionally held back on Spider-Man cards to appeal to the populace’s sensibilities for CubeCon, but I found a couple nice ones to add - Spider-Woman, Stunning Savior, Morlun, Devourer of Spiders, and Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel. Ironically, both the lands I thought were slam-dunk includes (Oscorp Industries and Urban Retreat) ended up being more sweet than good.

I haven’t talked about any of these, but the flashiest includes the craftable cards mentioned in the Arena Powered Cube announcement. I feel like these mostly speak for themselves. A notable exclude is Dack Fayden - the power level is right, but the UR gold cards are getting crowded and his minus ability is a pretty swingy feels-bad.

This change is hopefully the largest change I’ll make - 10% of the list! It was spurred by multiple factors lining up at the right time. Expect further changes to be much lighter, and more aligned with new set releases. Thanks to everyone who voiced their opinion on the changes, and especially to Marc Anderson/neo_mtg for a lot of conversation and card suggestions. Happy cubing!