Cube Updated - Automatic Post

Thoughts on MKM:
-The hybrid split cards are a sweet design, I wish Flotsam // Jetsam had been tuned just a bit stronger.
-Happy to have more artifact support to add to blue and red.
-Some awesome one-drops in black and green, love to see it.
-Only new mechanic added is Collect Evidence.

RIP to a couple of classics:
-Whirler Rogue was a beautiful mistake at uncommon, and after a good, long run gets to retire into the sunset.
-I've always enjoyed the play pattern from the NPH Shrines (Legions, Rage), but it feels like the game has sped up to where they can't justify their set-up cost anymore.

Also saying goodbye to my last Alchemy card, which was an interesting and mostly successful experiment. Ultimately decided against continuing in that direction, as with access to rares and a constant deluge of new cards I don't feel the need to extend into alchemy versions any longer.

Some comments on the latest changes:

Planar Disruption -> Petrify
This is a good place to talk about my recent decision to remove Planeswalkers from the cube. When War of the Spark first released I was excited about the prospect of seeing a steady printing of Planeswalkers at uncommon, particularly ones that were balanced more for limited. Unfortunately since then WotC has only printed one other uncommon Planeswalker, and at this point I’d prefer to exclude the card type completely rather than deal with the added complexity for just a couple of cards.

Banishing Light -> Glass Casket
Recently we have gotten enough Banishing Light variants that are (IMO) more interesting designs, that I’m willing to cut the iconic but generically-powerful removal spell. Bonus points to Glass Casket for being an artifact.

Aether Gale -> Evacuation
I’d like blue to join the other colors in getting a true sweeper and Evacuation is definitely the cleanest design available (I wish there was a Sorcery version). Aether Gale was being tested in that slot after the recent downshift, but it ended up being too low-floor / high-ceiling for my tastes.

Gorex, the Tombshell -> Writhing Necromass
I think there’s a very interesting discussion to be had between these two cards and Gurmag Angler. All three fill a similar cube space but each has different pros/cons and I’ve settled on the Necromass being my favorite of the three.

Embereth Veteran -> Reinforced Ronin
Witch's Mark -> Bitter Reunion
As much as I liked having a 2/1 for R, Role tokens ended up being very cumbersome to play with (watch someone who didn’t play WOE try to parse the reminder text) and ultimately not worth the complexity for just these two cards.

It started with rare fixing lands. Then I experimented with creature lands and board wipes. With those additions testing out successfully, I am finally down the slippery slope of opening my cube up to additional non-land rares. The Peasant restriction has been a great way to develop my cube over the years, but it has gotten to the point where the restriction is more detrimental than it is useful as far as crafting the cube environment that I am aiming for.

As part of the shift into Peasant+ I am rebranding the cube from Peasant Masters to Peasant Horizons, with the optimistic thought that many of the rare cards selected may someday be downshifted and become Peasant legal 'on the horizon'.

I will continue to adhere to a Peasant-centric environment and will approach new sets looking primarily at commons and uncommons, only adding rares when something jumps out to me or I’m trying to fill a specific hole. The goal will be to add rares that (in my assessment) fall within my desired power band and promote the kind of play patterns that I'm trying to support. Playtesting will be important to help determine which rares fit well within the environment, and which become unwelcome power outliers.

As a way to keep myself in check, when adding non-land rares I plan to include a short summary about why I feel the card is an appropriate inclusion. With all that said, let’s get to it:

Cleansing Nova <- Rout
Five mana seems like the sweet spot for wraths at this power level. Rout has been fine, but I want to limit the swingiest effects in the cube to sorcery speed so Cleansing Nova seemed like a good swap.

Planar Outburst <- You Hear Something On Watch
A single boardwipe in white felt insufficient, especially at 450. Hoping that adding a second should allow drafting white-based control decks to be more reliable and less of a fluke. I just cut Tatyova, Steward of Tides due to her interacting too favorably with other creature-lands, so Planar Outburst should be a true boardwipe here.

Teleportation Circle <- Plate Armor
Filling in the void left by Soulherder. It is harder to interact with than Soulherder, but it also isn’t a growing threat itself. This is the kind of rare that I’m willing to stretch to include: has the potential to be powerful, but requires some set-up and doesn’t go in every white deck.

Pollen-Shield Hare <- Prava of the Steel Legion
I’ve never liked the asymmetrical nature (both in number and in timing) of the buff from Prava. Pollen-Shield Hare is basically a sidegrade, but is a much cleaner design and could easily be uncommon without the Adventure half.

The Reality Chip <- Oracle of Tragedy
Admittedly, this is a bit of a pet card (look at that type-line!), but it also has a really fun, unique effect and gives your opponent plenty of ways to interact. It gets bonus points for being an artifact and specifically for being an interesting equipment outside Boros.

Thought Monitor <- Mulldrifter
This was one of the cards that most made me want to loosen my rarity restrictions, as nothing about this design seems rare to me. Thought Monitor is a perfect pull into a blue-based artifact deck, although our old friend Mulldrifter will be sincerely missed.

Mistmeadow Vanisher <- Alora, Merry Thief
This was printed in a commander set or perhaps it could have been an uncommon. I don’t think it’s much stronger than Alora, Merry Thief, and it is comparable to the new Meneldor, Swift Savior.

Languish
No changes here, just noting that Languish has performed how I was hoping it would perform and has earned its slot long-term.

Crux of Fate <- Hexmark Destroyer
As with white, one sweeper did not feel like enough support at 450 (red is probably fine with one big sweeper, as slower red decks are much less common). Crux of Fate is awkward in a cube with just a single dragon, but it’s really the only 5 mana value sweeper available in black.

Scrapheap Scrounger <- Siege Zombie
Powerful card, but not blocking is significant and means you need to be aggressive to truly take advantage. Scrapheap Scrounger interacts across multiple different themes that I’m trying to support and should fit in great.

Persist <- Drown in Ichor
Basically just a cleaner (and probably worse) version of a card we already have access to: Animate Dead. Cheap reanimation spells mostly scale with the power level of their environment, since for example Peasant cubes are only reanimating Peasant threats.

Storm's Wrath
The red Languish, Storm’s Wrath has also earned a long-term slot. With true sweepers at five mana, four mana for a toughness-based sweeper feels right in line at this power level.

Bomat Courier <- Phoenix Chick
A card that hits very high on the “fun” scale and seems totally fine on power level. I love that the exiled cards are facedown, presenting a kind of ‘mystery box’ choice.

Lizard Blades <- Hexgold Halberd
I’m always been fond of this card purely on flavor (I would run the showcase art if it wasn’t missing the reminder text on Reconfigure), and considering we’ve seen 1/1 double-strikers in red with upside before (Viashino Slaughtermaster) I expect Lizard Blades to be strong but not busted.

Sarkhan's Unsealing <- Chandra, Novice Pyromancer
Basically a secret Gruul card, but if the 4-power archetype is actually going to work it’s going to need the help from cards like Sarkhan's Unsealing.

Splinterfright <- Druidic Ritual
Splinterfright has always felt like an obvious candidate for downshift to rare. Add one mana to give your Boneyard Wurm trample and a mill trigger. Great design, fantastic support for the graveyard deck (payoff and enabler), and should be right within the power band of a Peasant cube.

Hardened Scales <- Kami of Whispered Hopes
Clearly there is precedent for this effect at uncommon this is just the simplest implementation and one of the best payoffs for the counters deck. A powerful but somewhat narrow build-around that does nothing on it's own, similar to Teleportation Circle and Sarhkan's Unsealing.

Bloodforged Battle-Axe <- Trusty Machete
A very fun twist on a Bonesplitter-style card. I want to see if there's a deck that can not only make multiple copies, but can also do something interesting with the extra copies. However this will often be worse than Trusty Machete so I'm not very concerned about it on power level.

Triskelion <- Icy Manipulator
In the power-crept world of 2023, it is kind of shocking to me we haven’t seen this downshifted to uncommon yet. Triskelion works with artifacts, counters, and flicker themes, and provides another interesting top-end option for ramp and reanimation decks.

Scrap Trawler <- Contagion Clasp
Some of the best and most interesting artifact payoffs exist solely at rare or above, which is partly why you don’t see artifact themes pushed very often in Peasant cubes. Dipping into rares allows me to run exciting artifact support cards like Scrap Trawler, which also has significant overlap with existing graveyard and sacrifice themes.

Mutavault <- Mishra's Factory
I’ve never been a fan of how Mishra’s Factory can unintuitively block as a 3/3, so Mutavault comes in as a swap. With almost no tribal support, the changeling text will rarely come up but it will be interesting when it does (amass?).

Going deeper on rare lands. I really like the Castle cycle from Eldraine as mana sinks, and the Hideaway lands should be fun to play with.

Overall I have been very happy with the addition of creature-lands to my cube, but pretty much across the board I like design of the Restless lands over the classic cycle.