So it’s that time again, just before the new set is released, and as such we need to go and revisit the cube once again.

Now this update will encompass quite a few changes. I’ve changed no less than half a dozen cards for each color, consulted other cubes out there, and tried to really define what I wanted each color to be good at. Since the cube is this huge, organic thing, it can easily go in one direction or another, and sometimes you have to stand back and figure out what you want each piece to do. The cube grew by 30 cards in this update, with five additional lands and the creation of an entirely new section, hybrid cards.

Let’s begin with White.

White Drops: Shining Shoal, Reprisal, Judge Unworthy, True Believer, Militia’s Pride, Order of Leitbur, Glory, Flickering Ward, Sunlance

White Additions: Twilight Shepherd, Prison Term, Radiant’s Judgment, Blade of the Sixth Pride, Feudkiller’s Verdict, Soltari Visionary, Celestial Crusader, Spectral Procession, Pianna, Nomad Captain

This update I like to call the White Weenie That Could, as a lot of the slower cards are removed such as Glory and Shining Shoal, while emphasizing the two most powerful archetypes for white cards: Weenies and Control. I basically switched Reprisal for the Cycling version in Radiant’s Judgment, while the do-mostly-nothing True Believer was replaced with Blade of the Sixth Pride, a most definite aggro upgrade.

One of my favorite additions is Soltari Visionary. I found this guy while looking at other cube lists, specifically Kenny Mayer’s, as this guy fills an important role: Destroying enchantments each turn. A cube is only as good as its design and intent, and having an aggressive answer to your opponent’s now available Prison Term seems pretty solid to me.

Pianna, Nomad Captain and Celestial Crusader come in to further the idea that you’re supposed to be tromping across the field with little white dudes that only get scarier. Ideally this will be preceded by Three Dudes (aka Spectral Procession). Control decks get Twilight Shepherd and Feudkiller’s Verdict, both excellent cards to help slow down an opponent’s progress.

Next we tackle Blue.

Blue Drops: Tradewind Rider, Fathom Trawl, Spell Snare, Guile, Delay, Mystical Teachings

Blue Additions: Serendib Efreet, Dominate, Legacy’s Allure, Pestermite, Ponder, Repeal, Rishadan Airship, Tinker

This update gives blue a lot of tools that help define its controlling nature. I wanted blue to be more clearly defined and I think this update helps a lot with that.

The drops were a little tough, with the most difficult decision being Spell Snare and Tradewind Rider. Both of them serve their purpose well, but Tradewind Rider was consistently very difficult to activate or keep alive long enough to do so. It couldn’t deal a lot of evasion damage and it rarely made final builds, so other cards that I felt would be more difficult choices came in. Fathom Trawl would certainly slide into a larger cube with ease, along with Mystical Teachings and Guile. But with our limited number of cards and the new focus on how colors behave, I’d rather Blue gravitate towards library manipulation in Ponder, creature control with Dominate and Legacy’s Allure, and with some efficient creatures in the form of Pestermite, Rishadan Airship, and Serendib Efreet.

And now, Black cube changes.

Black Drops: Contagion, Sudden Death, Carnophage, Grinning Demon, Faceless Butcher, Phyrexian Negator, Dark Ritual, Echoing Decay

Black Additions: Barter in Blood, Faerie Macabre, Zombie Cutthroat, Bane of the Living, Skinthinner, Puppeteer Clique, Makeshift Mannequin, Decree of Pain

Black is the color in which we kill things. We kill things and we’re hella sneaky. One of the most pertinent additions has to be Zombie Cutthroat. I feel a bit ashamed at not having him in here for so long, as a 3/4 morph that can go into any deck is definitely awesome and should not be overlooked. This also led to Skinthinner and Bane of the Living coming into the cube, as I wanted more morphs than just Exalted Angel and Vesuvan Shapeshifter.

I also upgraded a few removal spells. Barter in Blood replaces the frequent pass out Contagion, and Echoing Decay was in here for one card: Rude Awakening. I think that Decree of Pain is both a better answer to Rude Awakening and much more playable.

Considering that Black should be the color of reanimation, we also added in the best Zombify ever, Makeshift Mannequin, along with the devastating Puppeteer Clique. This rewards you for playing black, as you crush them with Barter in Blood only to bring back their best fatty next turn.

Next up is Red:

Red Drops: Shard Volley, Pact of the Titan, Shattering Pulse, Frenzied Goblin, Shivan Dragon, Scorched Rusalka, Fireball, Earthquake, Goblin Sharpshooter

Red Additions: Sonic Burst, Flame Javelin, Rack and Ruin, Keldon Vandals, Keldon Champion, Magus of the Scroll, Beacon of Destruction, Rolling Earthquake, Chain Lightning

In regards to Red, I wanted to give them a more immediate feel. First I replaced both Fireball and Earthquake to what I consider to be the best red X spell ever, Rolling Earthquake. Do note we still have Demonfire in the cube as our Fireball portion of Red. In regards to its creatures, while Scorched Rusalka and Frenzied Goblin were cute and all, they simply don’t have the reach and power of Magus of the Scroll and Keldon Champion, who is almost like a mini Cap’n Tickles himself. Speaking of Keldons, Keldon Vandals are another role-filler, giving you both a 4/1 beater and an answer to good artifacts in one card. The prevalence of cards like Scroll Rack and Crystal Shard were telling me that more answers were necessary, and the Vandals definitely provide it.

Finishing these changes, I wanted to give Red more direct burn in the form of Chain Lightning and Beacon of Destruction, while Sonic Burst is ridiculously efficient and Flame Javelin will probably see play across a variety of archetypes.

We round out the colors now with Green cards:

Green Drops: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Quagnoth, Skyshroud Elite, Changeling Titan, Constant Mists, Defense of the Heart, Pattern of Rebirth, Crop Rotation, Nostalgic Dreams

Green Additions: Pouncing Jaguar, Imperious Perfect, Iwamori, of the Open Fist, Vigor, Tooth and Nail, Farseek, Plow Under, Restock, Primal Command

In this update, we really redefine what Green is all about: Creatures, creatures, and more creatures. Specifically, we want more aggressive creatures and big, splashy spells. Green should be both immediate and able to play big spells with all of the mana they generate. We added power in the form of Pouncing Jaguar, Imperious Perfect, Iwamori and Vigor. Big spells were added in the form of Tooth and Nail, Plow Under aka The Most Unfun Card Ever, Restock and Primal Command. Crop Rotation wasn’t seeing quite the play we were expecting, so it was replaced with Farseek which should help with the insane manabases seen in cube drafts.

I removed a few big creatures that never saw play, such as Kamahl and Quagnoth, while getting rid of silly enchantments and whatnot that weren’t really giving Green the flavor I was looking for (Defense of the Heart, Pattern of Rebirth). G/R Aggro is one of my favorite archetypes to draft, so I wanted to give this color tools for that archetype while still allowing big mana decks to abuse cards like Tooth and Nail and Primal Command.

We now move on to Artifacts:

Artifact Adds: Grim Poppet, Lurebound Scarecrow, Engineered Explosives, Razormane Masticore

Artifact Drops: Akroma’s Memorial, Memnarch, Deathrender, Forcefield

In this update I definitely wanted to switch out Ze Goggles, aka Akroma’s Memorial, as no one ever played with the thing and it had been hanging around for too long. Deathrender was a neat idea but didn’t work out, Memnarch was just too much mana 90% of the time, and Forcefield is just an un-fun card. I’d rather give the colors more power and answers than have someone sit behind a three mana artifact all day.

That said, the additions all provide some utility to a variety of archetypes. Grim Poppet is a control player’s dream, the reverse Triskelion we all enjoy, while Lurebound Scarecrow is wonderfully aggressive and Razormane Masticore is Yet Another Card That Makes Squee Awesome. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Regarding the Land section of the cube, I have modified nothing other than adding the five ‘Cairns lands’ from Shadowmoor. These five additions up the total land count to 60.

Up next are the Multicolor cards. This section has been switched up quite a bit due to Shadowmoor block. With just so many awesome hybrid cards in Shadowmoor, plus the existence of hybrid cards in Ravnica block, I decided it was now time for the Multicolor section to be multicolor only, meaning no hybrid mana symbols anywhere in the cost. This gives us the following updates:

U/W Drops: Azorius Guildmage, Court Hussar

U/W Additions: Cloud Cover, Teferi’s Moat
U/B Drops: Wydwen, the Biting Gale
U/B Additions: Recoil

G/R Drops: Giant Solifuge

G/R Additions: Fires of Yavimaya

B/R Drops: Strangling Soot, Wort, Boggart Auntie
B/R Additions: Hellhole Rats, Wrecking Ball

U/G Drops: Coiling Oracle
U/G Additions: Temporal Spring

While a lot of these cards are dropped, some have simply been moved to the Hybrid section we’ll cover next. In regards to these additions, I’m really curious how annoying Cloud Cover can/will be, the power of Hellhole Rats against those big mana control decks, and Temporal Spring is another attempt to find a decent U/G card. While there are plenty of U/G hybrids coming our way, the U/G multicolor cards leave much to be desired. Yavimaya Embrace, anyone? Lastly Wrecking Ball makes its way back into the cube as an answer to annoying lands above all, while at the same time giving you another creature removal spell.

Now let’s talk about they new hybrid section. We’ll take this one section at a time.

U/W Hybrid: Augury Adept, Azorius Guildmage, Mirrorweave, Mistmeadow Witch, Plumeveil

U/W Hybrids give a little to each color, though I believe White Weenie will probably benefit the most. Augury Adept and Azorius Guildmage are No Joke, while Mirrorweave is an excellent weenie finisher. Mistmeadow Witch and Plumeveil, however, are excellent answers to a variety of decks, with Plumeveil keeping aggro in check while Mistmeadow Witch will demolish a mid-range deck and can let you get the most use out of 187 creatures.

G/W Hybrid: Kitchen Finks, Mercy Killing, Oversoul of Dusk, Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers, Wilt-Leaf Liege

This section gives us the clear best G/W hybrid card, Kitchen Finks, followed by the next best one, Oversoul of Dusk. Both of these creatures are very powerful and I expect to be picked quite highly. Mercy Killing gives white and green players the rare creature removal spell, and the Wilt-Leaf twins rock the combat step and contribute highly to both a G/W and G/R aggro strategy.

G/R Hybrid: Boartusk Liege, Boggart Ram-Gang, Firespout, Giant Solifuge, Tattermunge Maniac

Ah yes, probably my favorite hybrid group, and not just because it contains Cap’n Tickles. This archetype got a huge speed boost not only with this new hybrid section but in the structure of the Green and Red sections of the cube. G/R Sligh has always been a tremendously powerful cube archetype and I only expect it to be grow from here.

R/B Hybrid: Ashenmoor Gouger, Ashenmoor Liege, Fulminator Mage, Murderous Redcap, Rakdos Guildmage

Ah yes, the Rakdos colors are here and I’m trying out a few of the scarier looking options. While I think the Guildmage, Murderous Redcap and Fulminator Mage are the slam dunks in this category, it is the Ashenmoor creatures that are the most interesting to me. I like how the Liege makes your opponent almost solely rely on mass removal and is a great answer to Crystal Shard, one of the most powerful weapons in the cube. The Gouger, of course, is just huge and I hope he’ll make an impact in both B/R and G/R aggro archetypes.

Lastly, the B/U Hybrids: Dimir Guildmage, Inkfathom Infiltrator, Memory Plunder, Oona, Queen of the Fae, Sygg, River Cutthroat

These guys define the sneaky and powerful black with cards like Inkfathom Infiltrator and Memory Plunder while giving control decks their Big Perm (Oona, Queen of the Fae) and Dimir Guildmage for long-game domination. Finally, Sygg, River Cutthroat should fit in the aggressive R/B archetype very nicely.

And so there you have it. The cube has grown by thirty cards, almost 7%, and we have both new lands and an entirely new multicolor section to show for it. This latest round of tweaks comes as a result of many, many cube sessions since the release of Shadowmoor, and I believe they will only do good things to the greatest format ever created.

I hope this section was informative and if you’re thinking about starting your own cube, now’s the time.