Doing some substitutions for cards that people aren't excited to see.
Lexivore is a cute card but doesn't play particularly well. Replacing it with a card that has more impact as it hits the battlefield. Thanks a lot, FIRE.
Testing Storm of Forms. This may tip the scales on the number of board clears in the cube to higher than I'm comfortable with, but I'll wait for playtest data to make a decision on whether to swap back.
Farewell to Arms is again funny but not fun. Replacing it and When Fluffy Bunnies Attack with Saw in Half and Path of the Schemer. I'm going to try adding the new voting cards, even if they start dragging Planechase elements into the game. Oh well, it's an un-cube.
I wish Goblin Kaboomist was better. It just feels so bad to lose it on the first flip. Trying Tavern Scoundrel in its place for now.
Some other minor substitutions are just removing duplicate effects or no longer relevant effects for more interesting inclusions.
- Nearby Planet
- Urza's Fun House
- Springjack ShepherdWingmantle Chaplain
- Look at Me, I'm R&DHat Trick
- Question Elemental?Bamboozling Beeble
- Grim AfflictionAttempted Murder
- Breaking PointTrigger Happy
- Risky MovePriority Boarding
- Elvish ImpersonatorsIcing Manipulator
- Keeper of the Sacred WordOvergrown Battlement
- Aven Wind GuideClaire D'Loon, Joy Sculptor
- Soul DivinerTruss, Chief Engineer
- SpitemareComet, Stellar Pup
- Magister SphinxTivit, Seller of Secrets
- Cogwork TrackerWalking Bulwark
- Goblin BookieCinder Wall
Honestly the set was fairly disappointing.
I was hoping to replace Springjack Shepherd for a while. Wingmantle Chaplain is an excellent replacement, shoring up a weakened defenders archetype.
Splitting the Goblin Bookie effect between the colors of the archetype seems like a solid choice. Hat Trick increases the number of combat tricks in a fun way. Attempted Murder is more interesting than Grim Affliction (although I wish it was an instant).
Icing Manipulator adds some token support without detracting from dice rolling. Keeper of the Sacred Word is not as fun or interesting as it seems on the surface, so replacing it with a defenders staple seems safe.
Several replacements in the two-color signposts, mostly to make the signposts more obvious or just to try out some other interesting effects.
This is another combo that produces infinite storm. It does not produce infinite mana, which is something to be acutely aware of.
While Birgi, God of Storytelling is already a great storm-pickup, and Runaway Steam-Kin is a house in the red aggro deck, Grinning Ignus's existence in the cube is for the Ignus combo. The general idea of the combo is that an Ignus on the battlefield can activate its ability and be re-cast if an extra mana is generated during the process. If it's possible to generate the extra mana, Ignus can be cast and returned ad infinitum.
Runaway Steam-Kin may require a little extra mana to get going, since it can only generate the extra mana if it has triggered for three red spells. Once it has enough counters to activate once, it can use the next three Ignus casts to restore the counters and repeat the process.
The infamous twin combo shows up in many shapes and colors in the cube. The core of the twin combo is using an infinite loop to create an arbitrarily large number of creatures to attack and win the game with.
This combo needs a duplicator and a target. There are several of both in the cube, but not all pairs work together.
A duplicator needs to be able to make a copy of the target. The duplicator in the cube are Splinter Twin, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and (for the cat only) Saheeli Rai. The target need to do something that resets the duplicator, like Deceiver Exarch, Pestermite, Restoration Angel, Felidar Guardian, and Zealous Conscripts.