Small changes, though there were not many cards I’ve wanted to try that have come out in the past few months. The companions ended up not playing well which wasn’t surprising. Craggonwick Cremator ended up being difficult to really play and was a drawback too often.

This has the last of the Strixhaven and Kaldheim cards I'm interested in trying. I've added extra Foretell cards in an attempt to make any individual Foretell a bit more mysterious and interesting. To compensate I cut some of the more powerful morphs to attempt to keep the free spell count roughly the same.

Obosh and Gyruda have hopes of being interesting options while drafting the stack, but will likely require a slight change in how I normally do that to be able to support them. Fortunately they are reasonable cards to cast drafted around or not.

Brainbite and Sudden Spoiling are cards that I was reminded of recently and felt were worth trying over a few other cards that haven't been as good as hoped

I've removed some sweepers to help support the newer ones.

Mystifying Maze was fighting with other lands in the Mazing space and was the least functional, with blinking things often being too much of a downside.

Force of Vigor ended up never really being cast for its Force cost, which made it be less interesting and more just a total blowout for players taking two turns off to play artifacts and enchantments. Return to Dust still keeps it's spot, but has a more real cost as a sorcery to get rid of two enchantments.

Strixhaven is a wonderful set for Type 4 with multiple great cards in both the 5 commander decks being released as well as the set itself. This isn't everything I want to try, but are the cards I got my hands on first with another potential 5 or so coming in the near future.

Echo Tracer, Brash Taunter, and Wrecking Ogre have been taken out for being just generally unfun to play against. Taunter is too punishing to creatures and makes playing any feel like a mistake. Echo Tracer being able to bounce itself while being free leads to its utility and impact on the game being too high for its low opportunity cost. Wrecking Ogre too easily combos with creatures to lead to a full 20 point swing while not being forced to put the counter spell shield down. Skarrg Goliath is also very strong, but doesn't lead to a one shot lethal as often so is staying for now.

Meekstone, Phyrexian Rebirth, and Calamity Bearer are all being removed for being a bit too weak. Meekstone often required its player to have taken a large amount of damage before it mattered and was often a dead card. Rebirth was one of the weaker wrath effects and rarely left more than a 3/3 behind any time it was reasonably cast. Calamity Bearer sucked and I knew it, but wanted to try it anyway to get more giant synergy. I'm going to look elsewhere for it in the future.

Both Baleful Mastery and Devastating Mastery stood out to me as the slam dunks from the set for this format. Reasonably strong spells with a great backup alternate cost that leaves a real decision to the player. I only with the other Mastery spells fit as well as these two do.

The other five cards here are a mix of cards that just seems like cool cards that left some amount of options without being overbearing on a game. I am slightly worried about Inspiring Refrain as a too efficient source of free card advantage, but I figured it was worth trying before dismissing it.

Missed this one yesterday, but there is something about Ashiok I didn’t like. Trying a different Planeswalker that I think fits in a bit better.

Supporting Dragons deeper has felt great enough that I've decided to try and fit another tribe into the box, giants! In addition to them I'm pushing a bit harder on supporting more cascade and trying to make drafting a pile of counterspells not be the obvious go to for every deck.

To do this I cut many cards I've felt have either been a bit too weak (spot removal like Terminate and Vindicate) or have been very strong in a less fun way. (Chaos Wand and Altar of Dementia) Some of my cuts are cards that just haven't felt quite right or have broken some of my rules, but have found a way to stick around. (I'm looking at you Blast of Genius)

The Giants package comes with a few new sweepers and pushed me to take out some of the ones I've been enjoying less. Jiwari, the Earth Aflame is fun to combo with things like Stuffy Doll, but I would be worried about adding extra sweepers that don't count against your spell limit and Realm-Cloaked Giant is taking that slot. The Stuffy Doll combo decks aren't being left completely out with Bloodfire Colossus coming in to help support both archetypes.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of these giants get cut eventually and adding cards such as Calamity Bearer may be me trying a bit too hard to make it work, but I've been enjoying creating more distinct plans and believe these types of changes are moving this cube closer to what I want it to be.

I've finally decided to replace the more aggressively slanted counterspells for ones with less obvious upside. Undermine and Ionize both have been slightly too strong in pushing the pressure already naturally created from the aggressive starts. Now I have Mindbreak Trap and Summary Dismissal that can be used in more situations, but are less about getting the opponent dead.

Planar Cleansing filled the same role of other sweepers such as Akroma's Vengence and Merciless Eviction but was less interesting than both. To help fill the slot I added some more interesting sweepers than can push players toward more drafting decisions with Descend upon the Sinful and Crux of Fate.

Dralnu, Lich Lord is one of my favorite cards, but led to being a useless/risky creature to play or an uninteresting counterspell machine more often than anything interesting. I'm sad to see him go.

Chromanticore was too strong of a free spell and led to ending games too easily for my goals. I replaced it with Brine Elemental that is still good in the fast aggressive morph heavy games, but is better as defensive effect.

I knew from the start that I didn't have enough great hits to make Niv-Mizzet Reborn exciting, but I decided to give it a chance. It was often just disappointing and never lived up to the possible hype leaving players dissatisfied. I added a tribal option in Ojutai, Soul of Winter instead.

Avatar of Woe was fine, but never super exciting. Trying out the new Lucille in an attempt to get a similar effect with more risk/reward and decisions on both sides.

With now having access to three different creatures that combo kill with Starstorm I found it to be too powerful. Adding a sweeper that is still an instant, but works better at beating those things while slightly reducing the amount of board wipes that kill everything.

Fire Tempest - Not interesting enough to be worth the slot as strictly worse Inferno. Have a different new sweeper instead.

Izzet Chemister - Reads exciting, but always played out a bit boring. Was mostly a very slow Daring Apprentice and that is already a card that barely keeps its spot.

Torgaar, Famine Incarnate - The cost reduction rules were weird and didn't add much to the game and the effect of setting life totals was powerful and ended games in a way I didn't enjoy. Magister Sphinx does the same thing and I think one copy of that effect is all I want.

Stunt Double - Clones are sweet and this is a pretty good clone. Excited to try it.

Exalted Angel - A classic morph creature. Maybe have too many morphs now, but I like this one and want to see how far I can push it.

Kindred Dominance - A sweeper that helps support the dragons archtype. I like having more sweepers that can be played that don't destroy all of the casters board. I've had games suffer from someone drawing too many sweepers while having creatures in play and feeling like they couldn't cast those sweepers. This should help slightly.

At some point accidentally submitted a second Brash Taunter instead of Terror of the Peaks. Cube should successfully have no duplicates anymore!

Oops! Typo fix!

Out

Terminus/Condemn - I've tried to avoid cards that put things back into decks so that when games are over it is easy to remove the cards that have been played with and add new random ones from the stack. Terminus and Condemn weren't bad cards, but they ultimately weren't worth having to remember to take the bottom card out of your otherwise unknown deck when you were done with each game.

In Garruk's Wake/Decree of Pain - I'm trying to cut back the number of sweepers I have slightly. These two stood out as the two most powerful that didn't bring anything super interesting to the game. Decree in particular could be too much of a tempo and card advantage swing to be fun.

Time Stop/Counterlash/Lost in the Mist - Counterspells were too powerful and I'm hoping to remove most that are far above counterspell+.

Soulherder/Child of Alara - These cards often were too hard to use effectively or were too weak overall.

Inspiration - Fine, but boring. Would rather add more interesting card advantage options.

Unburial Rites - Practically uncounterable and very likely to be an easy 2-for-1 and tempo gain. Too strong on average.

In

Urabrask the Hidden/Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund - Strong creatures and more haste givers. Either might be too strong, but I enjoy the moments they can provide.

Putrefy/Pitfall Trap - Trying to keep my targeted removal up.

Thought Collapse/Didn't Say Please/Sinister Sabotage - The new counterspells have more impact on milling in the game and can lead to potential drawbacks against some cards in the cube. The dynamic nature of their power depending on the opponents deck is interesting and leads to cool mill moments.

Hypnotic Siren - Unsure how strong this option is, but a free counterspell that only really counters morphs and other cheap interaction feels like a good place to be. (SEE ABOVE POST FOR EDIT!)

Angel of Sanctions/Reason // Believe - More graveyard action. Neither seem particularly stellar, but I'm willing to give them both a shot.

Leovold, Emissary of Trest was unfortunately too weak of a body and too unimpressive as an effect. Taking your turns one spell to cast him just ended up feeling weak and unexciting so out he goes.

Inkwell Leviathan has been on thin ice for a long time as having Islandwalk led to more questions than was worth it for a creature this generic.

Mistfire Weaver and Aven Liberator are both options I haven't tried before as interesting morphs. Unsure if both of them will stay in the cube since they fill similar roles to both each other and other morphs, but I'm excited to see if they are interesting enough to both keep their slots. I do worry my amount of "counterspell" style morphs might be a bit high with the inclusion of these, but I won't know for sure until I try.

Den Protector was too strong of an effect to get for free and often was just counterspell+ with little downside to when it was good.

Damia, Sage of Stone broke my own rules regarding card advantage. Top decking Damia when games were close was possibly the strongest thing that a player could do before, and even though Damia could be interacted with in most scenarios her power was just too high.

Quicksilver Dragon is a great part of the Dragon/Morphs package and is a card that I somehow glossed over before as a potential add. Likely to be a staple as long as I decide those plans are worth keeping.

Nantuko Vigilante is another reasonable morph than can help keep some of the incredibly powerful permanents in check. Not an exciting card but I'm glad to have more of this effect.