Okay everybody it’s time to update the cube with additions from the most recent set, Lorwyn. After playing with the set in both constructed and limited I think we’ve got a good feel for what’s going out and what’s going in.

The first big change is that each basic color and the land section of the cube grew by five cards. That’s not to say we didn’t take things out, but at the same time, there sometimes really are cards you just can’t cut.

With that said, let’s start with White.

White Cards Added: Knight of Meadowgrain, Cloudgoat Ranger, Oblivion Ring, Hoofprints of the Stag, Militia’ Pride, Austere Command

White Cards Dropped: Sunscour, Intrepid Hero

As we grew to 55 cards, white exchanged Austere Command for the far inferior Sunscour, and Intrepid Hero left simply because nobody ever played him. Sure he looks like he’s important here and there, but he never actually does anything.

As for those added, Ajani Goldmane is a Planeswalker, heh, Knight of Meadowgrain is one of the best creatures in Magic for its cost, period, Cloudgoat Ranger is a mid-range beast in a cube that needs some mid-range beasties, Hoofprints of the Stag gives all the control players wood, Militia’s Pride is a beating in the G/W Aggro archetype, and Oblivion Ring is arguably the best card in Lorwyn.

Blue Cards Added: Fathom Seer, Guile, Mulldrifter, Sower of Temptation, Jace Berelin, Fathom Trawl, Cryptic Command, Brine Elemental

Blue Cards Dropped: Uyo, Silent Prophet, Stroke of Genius, Dominating Licid

For the blue cards we decided to add in the other half of the pickles combo and the always-helpful Fathom Seer, Dominating Licid’s better half also known as Sower of Temptation, and other ridic blue cards like Cryptic Command and Fathom ‘Find Me Some Gas’ Trawl. Oh, and Jace is a planeswalker. They’re all in here, they’re all good, I’m not going to keep mentioning them.

Black Cards Added: Liliana Ves, Thoughtseize, Profane Command, Shriekmaw, Oona’s Prowler, Faceless Butcher, Rotlung Reanimator, Phyrexian Negator

Black Cards Dropped: Cao, Cao, Lord of Wei, Chainer, Dementia Master, Royal Assassin

For this update we basically get rid of my ridiculous notion of including Cao, Cao Lord of Wei who is all kinds of bad it turns out, and Chainer, Dementia Master, who looks a whole lot better than he actually plays with other Cube goodies. On the plus side we get Cashseize, Shriekmaw, Profane Command, and bring back some classics that have been missed like Phyrexian Negator, Rotlung Reanimator and the ever-powerful Faceless Butcher.

Red Cards Added: Chandra Naalar, Keldon Marauders, Heat Shimmer, Changling Berserker, Dwarven Blastminer

Red lost no cards and gained some interesting cards. Heat Shimmer is a card that I have loved the more I’ve played with it, either killing off Legendary Dragons or giving me just enough to swing for lethal. Keldon Marauders is an incredibly aggressive card that slides right into the mono red archetype, which, combined with a card like Changling Berserker, could get pretty unfair. Lastly, Dwarven Blastminer came in primarily for problematic lands like Urza’s Factory and Library of Alexandria.

Green Cards Added: Garruk Wildspeaker, Changling Titan, Masked Admirers, Cloudthresher, Eyes of the Wisent

Like red, green lost no cards in this update and instead got several synergistic additions. Masked Admirers is, of course, a house as they only get scarier as the game goes on, Eyes of the Wisent is a great sideboard card, Cloudthresher is just scary, and Changling Titan works with the incredible number of comes-into-play abilities that are ripe in the cube. Garruk is…well…a planeswalker.

Artifact Cards Added: Deathrender

Artifact Cards Dropped: Winter Orb

While everyone else got bigger, artifacts stayed tried and true and we universally voted Winter Orb out and Deathrender looked incredibly cool.

Multi Cards Added: Wydwen, the Biting Gale, Wort, Boggart Auntie

Multi Cards Dropped: Kaervek the Merciless, Moroii

So as for the multicolor, Kaervek the Passout was finally decommissioned and Morii doesn’t stand a chance against the strictly-superior Wydwen the Biting Gale. Wort, Boggart Auntie allows all of your elves and Changlings to just get better, as we all know from playing Lorwyn limited, and the evasion doesn’t hurt either.

Land Cards Added: Vivid Crag, Vivid Creek, Vivid Grove, Vivid Marsh, Vivid Meadow

The land addition was pretty straightforward. No one wanted to drop the lands we had, everyone loves Vivid lands, and this was also the motivation behind increasing the cards in each basic color instead of cutting them, as we felt it was time for our cube to grow up a little bit.

And that’s the Lorwyn Cube Update. My cube is now 440 cards large, over 7% growth with the new set. I think that speaks volumes for how powerful—and fun—Lorwyn really is.