Another evening of Fruitcake Cube drafting meant another evening of interesting additions to the cube! This infusion of ingredients featured a few new pieces from the the recently released Murders at Markov Manor, alongside some familiar staples of old. It also featured our first black-border/non-acorn unset piece (which was a splashy addition, to be sure).

We also played around with the means of injecting new cards into the environment. As noted after the last draft, random seeding directly into pools felt a bit unwieldly, so this time we seeded cards randomly into the first pack. A slight deviation from the previously advertised design goal was to build a single pack of 14, seed the new cards into these packs at random, then do more controlled pack exchanges to that each player would get to open a pack they didn't make, with a random new ingredient hidden in there. By and large, it seemed successful - but I'll make note if we try any other methods we enjoy even more!

After the Fruitcake Cube's first draft since the inaugural cook comes the adjustments to its flavor profile! As with previous player-driven changes, it's interesting for me to see players wanting more things to come out than things to come in (though I did add a few trims to accommodate for new ingredients). There's definitely some spice baked into this iteration of changes, and it will be interesting to see how things continue to take shape as we cook.

These changes aside, one piece of feedback that came up post-draft was regarding how it felt to have the new cards injected into the environment via the current method. While the guarantee the cards showed up in players' pools meant they got visibility, it didn't necessarily mean players opted to play them - mostly due to whether or not they ended up in a deck and seat that favored it.

Instead of randomly seeding the new ingredients directly into pools, the next time we shuffle up we'll try to control the chaos a bit more to help ensure players opt-in to playing these new pieces. After packs are distributed, players will pass their new ingredient to the left, and shuffle it into their first pack. This means that each player gives everyone else a chance to draft their new ingredient first (so no attempting to 'spike' add cards), but also ensures that players who pick those pieces up with a bit more agency and intention. And if something still feels off, well, we'll just keep cooking.

For its first tasting outside the test kitchen, the Fruitcake Cube fired during one of the routine Madison Monday Night Cube sessions. At first, I wasn't sure how many folks were going to be keen on giving it a whirl - but we ended up with more folks interested in sampling it than even I'd expected. In fact, we'd had enough folks and interest to fire two pods of Cube that night - and enough interest in Fruitcake that I skipped out on the dessert tasting.

Of those who attended, about half had brought ingredients to cook with - though a pair of us in the second non-dessert pod had brought some to spare. The influx inspire any non-ingredient haves to quickly rifle through their own bulk to find some fun inclusions, and so we have the first batch of new ingredients added to the Fruitcake Cube since it was cooked up!

Cutting back the amount of Laelia in the environment was something intended in the previous player revisions post, but for some reason it didn't quite stick (nor did some tags).

Fortunately, the intended swap was noted in offline tracking so it was an easy fix.

After the inaugural Fruitcake cook, each player who attended was rewarded with 2 revisions to make. This deviation from the proscribed revision plan was intentional, since it provided an equal measure of revisionist control to each of the initial cooks once the first draft recipe was finished.

Without going into trifling detail on each swap, I did want to note a few things about this series of revisions:

• Players were much more keen to cut cards from the main than add them. Just shy of 80% of revisions submitted were cuts.
• Interestingly - and perhaps to be expected - cuts felt adversarial. Not "Player X cutting Player Y" cards, mind! Instead, most cuts felt as though they were targeting cards or effects that opposed players' common game plans!
• The player revisions included returning 4 duplicate cards to the mainboard.
• There were no strictly green cards adjusted, and the only card adjusted including green was a 5 color payoff: Meeting of the Five.

Among the exclusions and inclusions made my player revisions are some that I myself considered in my initial pass. Worth noting:

• Several cards cut by players in this pass are ones I considered primarily due to power level or redundancy.
• Among cards cut by players are some I felt were healthy for the cube in its current state, or that provided a unique effect or opportunity.
• Several cards that rotated I hadn't considered at all, and speak more to what players do or do not enjoy playing or playing against.

I'm eager to get things packed up and out again, to see how a slice of the Fruitcake tastes now. And, of course, to see what changes happen in the next recipe revision.

While performing the trims and updates, I discovered that Cube Cobra had eaten a few cards from the list. Among them were several options that stood as as worth including in the mainboard. Some are displacing other cards that were left in the main previous.

In addition, a couple of main-board cuts that were intended to occur during the Power Band adjustment and were missed because I can't count have been added to the list (looking at you, Gut).

With duplicates removed, and power bands adjusted, the next aim in cutting back was to reduce the amount of strict redundancy in the environment. This means creatures and spells that either perform the same task the same way, or that are functional reprints of other cards. Cards like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat are out, for example, where their similar-but-not-identical pal Vraan, Executioner Thane will stick around. In this, I've also favored keeping in cards like Mahadi, Emporium Master and eschewing Judith, the Scourge Diva to allow for a bit more diversity within a similar build (namely our multiple sacrifice-based themes).

Alongside this, there are also some trims to food producers, especially those that occupied similar slots and/or produced similar effects as other cards. This is, again, to help reduce some of the abundance of options, as well as narrow some of the scope of where these decks want to operate. To highlight this separation, Makeshift Munitions was trimmed (I erroneously included it in the power-band adjustment!), in an effort to provide a bit more contrast between the creature-based sacrifice theme and artifact-based sacrifice themes. We'll see how this shakes out!

With the plentiful fixing in the environment, as well, some of the more limited use or lower-power band fixers have been put on the sidelines, for now, as the redundancy they provide isn't going to be a high-value consideration.

With duplicate cards already trimmed back, the next iteration of recipe adjustments focuses on adjusting power band of available ingredients.

The diverse assortment of ingredients brought by our cooks is fantastic to see, though in the end result we can see a few cards that do too much, and some that do too little. Cards like Sol Ring, for example, punch above their weight class - even in an environment rich with mana acceleration and fixing options, where some others like Underworld Dreams might be a bit too slow and clunky without the support of other powerful cards that aren't in the environment at all (looking at you, Wheel effects).

The other area that was trimmed back in consideration of power band in the environment was "Draft Matters" cards that interact strictly with the draft process, like Cogwork Librarian. These cards don't meaningfully contribute to gameplay, but do possess the potential to exacerbate the still-wide powerband gap in the environment. Note, however, that not all "Draft Matters" were trimmed: cards like Paliano, the High-City, for example, provide meaningful fixing in the environment that is hard to replace. Additionally, all the "Deck Construction Matters" cards, such as Arcane Savant and Caller of the Untamed are still in, as they don't disrupt the draft process, and provide interesting and powerful deckbuilding considerations for players to cook with.

Now that the holidays have come and gone, I can carve out some free time to carve down the Fruitcake!

The first round trimmings: duplicates!

As noted in the initial design goal, the Fruitcake Cube is not inherently opposed to the duplicate of cards (or effects). That said, duplicates are the low-hanging fruit[cake] for the initial carving, so we'll start here as we continue to shape this magnificent centerpiece.