⚠ If there is no list of changed cards to the left, you may need to view this post on the blog listing page instead.
This update focuses on lands, improving support for Jund counters, Jeskai Artifacts, and Sultai Graveyard, as well as increasing and improving removal, and finally trimming lifegain and some "defenders".
Lands in HandsThe big change here is bumping both Ash Barrens and Fabled Passage up to 4 each. I've avoided fetchlands until now, but this change improves both fixing and also land-focused graveyard synergies, most notably with Slogurk, the Overslime and Centaur Vinecrasher.
Faerie Conclave, Mystic Sanctuary, and Dakmor Salvage have also been added, bolstering the "lands that do things" category.
Joy SparksEnthusiastic Mechanaut, Arcbound Shikari, Glassdust Hulk and Malcator, Purity Overseer all signpost and support Jeskai artifacts. Though artifact synergies occur throughout the cube, they are most prevalent in those colours. Golems are another sub-theme I adore, which Hulk and Malcator help support wonderfully.
Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel has taken the place of Good-Fortune Unicorn. Yannik also overlaps with both flicker and counter strategies, but gives players more decisions to make when distributing the counters. Unicorn has been a nice include for a few decks, but it felt a bit bland despite its solid effect.
Wither Hither — Negative counters have felt fairly rare during play, so Twinblade Slasher, Scarscale Ritual, and Rendclaw Trow have been added. Additionally, Puncture Blast can both target players and hit harder than Puncture Bolt, which I think is worth the extra mana. Rustrazor Butcher is a big question mark at the moment, but I'm very curious to see how it plays out.
Grave Yard — Several Sultai cards have been added to improve the graveyard as an effective resource. Green cards such as Conduit of Worlds, Edge of Autumn, the re-added Centaur Vinecrasher, and more situationally Llanowar Loamspeaker help to synergise with lands hitting the graveyard. Blue and black cards like Clay Revenant, Combat Courier, Boneyard Mycodrax, and Dogged Detective each feature abilities to ensure they remain useful even after being killed or milled.
Removal count has been increased, as well as a slight improvement on their general ability to handle larger threats.
Skorpekh Lord, Bygone Bishop, and Devilish Valet are cards that I hope will play well, but will be keeping an eye on for power and play pattern issues.
Fond Farewells