A few highlights for the latest changes:

• Welder hasn't been very successful, feeling very feast-or-famine. With the release of another high-mv instant in Jeskai Revelation, it felt like a good time to switch back to Mizzix's Mastery. Alongside the switch, Baral's Expertise in coming out for Mystic Confluence, a very powerful upgrade that players can now flashback with a Torrential Gearhulk.
• I cut down on artifacts in blue that weren't seeing play and included more reactionary cards to give control additional tools. Tempo and traditional control are archetypes where I still need some improvements in playing a building, as well as cube design, so expect continued iterations there.
• While blue did some artifact trimming, I'm continuing to work on artifact, aggro, and +1/+1 counter overlap across Naya as more worthwhile green artifacts appear. I have high hopes for Yotian Dissident alongside cards generating more artifacts, such as Sentinel of the Nameless City and Sram's Expertise.
• Agatha's Soul Cauldron is once again creating frustrations for drafters, so I decided to cube it, Hazel's Brewmaster and any cards mostly intended to combo with them. I'm sad to not see that package realized, but Soul Cauldron has a history of shutting down decks and a net-negative fun factor.

While at SCG CON Charlotte, I had the opportunity to try out the latest iterations of Parnell's Cube and UberBear's Artifact Cube. Artifact aggro has needed some love in the Creative Cube, so I was looking for solutions that didn't lean heavily on Modular, since it can be very parasitic.

I had some interesting finds while playing, including Cyberman Patrol, Iron Apprentice, and JackKnight. I'm also bringing back some cards tried in the past, such as Paladin Danse, Steel Maverick, Gingerbrute, and Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender that were good on their own, but flourish when the environment better supports them. To put more artifact rectangles on the board, Spyglass Siren, Whirler Rogue, and Forensic Gadgeteer are making their way in (plus will be good friends with Stridehangar Automaton).

Outside of artifact aggro, trying a few other adjustments for cards that simply weren't getting there, and to see if Emperor of Bones can play nicely with the cube if Atraxa, Grand Unifier is put in Time Out (she knows what she's done).

Another month, another Magic set...

With the density and focus of artifacts in the cube, I was fairly excited about what Aetherdrift was going to bring to the table. Though it ended up being extremely vehicle heavy, there were still some nice gems to be found. At the top of that list were the Gearhulks, with 4/5 making the cut (sorry Pyrewood, maybe next time).

In addition to some testing, I made it out to Vertex in Philly a few weeks back. While there I tried out the Bodleian Cube and the Atomic Cube so I could get a taste of similar environments and see what they do differently. Both were a ton of fun, especially everyone getting a Cogwork Librarian during the Bodleian draft. Tempo strategies, death & taxes, high spell densities, and different power deltas all caught my eye as different directions Jake and Greg took for their environments. Coming out of the event, I felt there were some areas to reconsider or re-approach for the Creative Cube:

I was previously concerned about including some cards in the Creative Cube leading up to CubeCon 2024 as to not warp the format. I felt like I learned my lesson with CubeCon 2023's list, where the power delta was too small and a few power outliers took over, by widening that delta and taking out anything egregious. However, some of those cards may not have been as egregious as I previously thought, plus Magic cards are overall getting stronger. Our last testing session with most of today's updates pushed the format to have more powerful plays, but it ultimately made for more exciting games and fun from our drafters. I may need to make a couple power-level calls before UberCubeathon, but I'm going to keep testing the waters.

Present day Magic cards are complicated, and there is only so much attention equity that can be devoted to everything taking place on the battlefield, in addition to tricks in other zones. There were a few Start Your Engines! cards I was very interested in including from DFT, but if I was this to be an approachable environment with high interaction, I need to draw a line in the sand. There will still be a couple cards with Toxic—though I've yet to see someone win a game with poison—and as complicated as Craft is, it's closely tied to the artifact control theme, an important identity to the Creative Cube.

There have been some cards excluded from the cube that I wouldn't consider too powerful* but didn't create pleasant games for the environment, and I've been trying to articulate why. I feel one of the reasons is how quickly it closes a game and makes the opponent feel like they didn't have an opportunity to deal with the threat. Emperor of Bones is my most recent example, where it can quickly lead to a massive threat being reanimated on turn 3 or 4, and puts their opponent too far on the backfoot to recover. On the other end of the spectrum, this has been a reminder to have proper threats to finish the game so games can end in a timely fashion.

Someone reviewing the cube list may notice that there's a noticeable ratio of sorcery-speed interaction compared to its instant speed counterparts. There's also not a ton of artifact removal, or any artifact wipes. This is a product of ensuring that artifact strategies aren't feast or famine, and that they can compete as tap-out control strategies. Graveyard interaction is still an area where I'm searching for a sweet spot, not wanting to wreck graveyard strategies, but ensuring reanimator strategies don't rule supreme.

I originally presented this cube as a "synergy cube," and I feel like that doesn't do the cube any favors in explaining what I want it to provide to players. Often, when synergy comes up, the expectation is that lower power-level cards—when combined—will always beat out more powerful ones, or that a drafter keeping a single focal point of a game plan will cause their deck to fully come together.

My goal with this cube is to create an environment where drafters are encouraged to mix-and-match themes to cleverly build engines, play with exciting cards that allow for powerful plays, and temper the power delta enough so games don't feel won by difficult to answer threats. Over the next week or so, I'll be updating the Overview page to better convey these goals and provide a better primer to those new to the cube.

As a reminder, the Creative Cube will be featured at UberCubeathon 2025 on April 26th in Chapel Hill, NC. I hope to see many of you there!

Got a chance to test the cube with 4 players this past weekend at Vertex cube event in Philly. Most of the list felt pretty solid, but a handful of cards stuck out for either being uninteresting/underwhelming or a bit too warping. —coughFear of Sleep Paralysiscough— Building around Disinformation Campaign was a ton of fun in Dimir control, and Rakdos sacrifice put up some good results. There were two notable areas that needed a bit of improvement:

1. Slower decks needed a couple more speedbumps to fight against the very aggressive strategies rather than fold when aggro curves out.
2. wasn't performing well with its token-ish strategy, so it's moving back to delirium to overlap with the strong enchantment theme.

Overall, very happy with the cube's performance and the fun pockets of synergy it shows off. Looking forward to jamming more drafts!

Add from the package Temples

Add from the package Lifegain Lands

Had an awesome time at CubeCon this year, and I'm finally getting around to reviewing card pool data from everyone that drafted the Creative Cube. Some key notes:

• This year's version of the Creative Cube provided a much more fun experience for players than 2023's version! Increasing the power delta provided more excitement during drafting and gameplay, and clear signpost cards helped guide players into established themes during their first drafts.
• Successful aggro decks required leaning on established themes to succeed (e.g. +1/+1 counters) as was the intention. This gave other themes time to establish their gameplans and interact with the board.
• Players were great at providing feedback, and I left the event feeling like there were only a few specific areas and cards requiring changes.

Speaking of changes, there were some cards and themes that didn't work out—some of which I had low hopes for, like The Blackstaff of Waterdeep. Here's a brief breakdown:

• Cards intended for value but often viewed as combo cards in constructed formats created confusion and were often not played. E.g. Indomitable Creativity, Lich-Knights' Conquest.
• has been a struggle to find a proper theme, and tokens/ETB wasn't quite it either. This is moving back to welder, but will need some help from Aetherdrift to gain additional support and clear signposts. Campus Renovation is not powerful enough even though it provides clear direction.
• Likeness Looter is such an amazing card for , and I wish I had swapped Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator for it much sooner.
• could use a bit more direction and/or alternate play directions than simply reanimator. I'm going to see how Kiora, the Rising Tide performs and if there's more support that feels fitting to the cube to support either more of a graveyard focus or draw X focus.
• Some additional overlap between Artifacts and adjacent color pairs would be nice, so hopefully Aetherdrift delivers. I like the increase in artifacts to make Ingenious Smith a card that can see play in more decks.

I expect half of these changes to stick, but a handful more updates will be needed in the coming months.

MH3, BLB, and DSK gave me a bunch to think about when trying to finalize this list. While testing over the last few months, some archetypes, like GUR ramp and URx spells, were performing amazingly, but a few others were not quite pulling their weight. To rectify this, the environment was slowed down a bit, aggro decks went bigger, and other themes got the added support they needed. Here's some highlights:

• streamlined its artifact control theme by melding it with blink effects and switching more cards that care about instants & sorceries into ones that care about noncreature cards.

• leans harder into self-mill and reanimate, plus more reactive spells added to the list.

• didn't see much change, but received some overlapping benefit from the and changes.

• is finally something exciting that doesn't have to piggyback on 's ramp plan. Pairing self-mill with escape creatures like Bloodbraid Challenger and Detective's Phoenix packs a punch and brings a very unique aggro feel to the table.

• was reverted to +1/+1 counters since red needed to steal some token support and players missed Bristly Bill, Spine Sower.

• received the added aristocrats support it needed and should function as intended.

• received a fun side-quest with Indomitable Creativity and Reality Scramble, but otherwise no noticeable changes.

• has a more solid identity with the added Delirium support from Duskmourn.

• has had quite the identity crisis, with artifact aggro and historic aggro not cutting it. The former couldn't compete against most of the field, and the latter wasn't of interest to players. The color pair now takes a familiar go-wide aggro strategy, but leverages triggers from ETB and attack effects. Riders of Rohan and The Jolly Balloon Man should see a lot of screen time.

• is still doing ramp things. No notable changes.

It's been quite the journey, but I'm finally happy with the current state of the cube and how it properly exemplifies its intended goals and themes. I look forward to seeing new folks get to draft it at CubeCon in the coming weeks!

-DSK ADDITIONS-
Splitskin Doll
Unidentified Hovership
Overlord of the Mistmoors