Had a lot going on lately, which has resulted in me lapsing on draftbacks and finishing this cube. Too many irons in the fire! I'm looking to rectify that today.
Been thinking about adding in a Lands-Matter package to white, which gives it a form of "pseudo card-quality", in the sense that "dead draws" in the late game (lands) can be transformed into a spell-like resource (landfall triggers). I wanted to dip it into blue to try and tip the balance away from
being the "land colors" alone, which feels unnecessarily isolated. Obviously
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper deserves a mention in a talk about lands, but he's not exactly the sort of Lands-Matter I had in mind, and the Awaken cards in white and blue are so uninspired, leaving
Halimar Tidecaller also out of the discussion.
For land-seeking tools, white offers:
Quite a lot to unpack.
Land Tax feels too powerful here, but
Weathered Wayfarer and
Oreskos Explorer seem alright, both benefiting in a bounceland format by pushing sequencing decisions.
Knight of the White Orchid is great, but
is a bit much, whereas
Kor Cartographer is a solid card that has dreadful art.
Tithe and
Gift of Estates are acceptable, but too boring, and in a format with a lot of discard going on,
Planar Birth is begging to be blown out by the opponent breaking the symmetry better than you at instant speed. No thanks. This leaves us with some tough options in
Weathered Wayfarer and
Oreskos Explorer as potential enablers, with
Kor Cartographer an unpleasant, but also suiting, third option.
The landfall triggers themselves are quite nice, though.
Retreat to Emeria and
Emeria Angel both look appropriate to the environment; though I'm still not fully convinced where I want tokens, I know that white
needs them, as it often struggles for a compelling identity in cube.
looks good here, and
is decently interesting, but
and
still leave something to be desired. Tokens are a worthwhile intersection for the former three, and, most importantly, it ties very well with the land-collecting tools in
. This could also justify moving
Knight of the Reliquary back into the list, which herself ties in nicely with the
Noose Constrictor and
Wild Mongrel available in the 2-drop slot. This presents some exciting implications for the curve, and also reinforces an unexpectedly Naya formation for a lands deck.
Moving up the curve,
Admonition Angel is a potent weapon that wants to play a control game. I'm exceptionally wary of fliers and powerful curve-toppers in this list of tiny tool creatures and spicy spells, but at the same time, I feel compelled to offer exciting buildarounds, especially to white, and this might fit the bill. Demanding
, as well as lands to power the engine, is quite a tall ask. As a 6/6 flier, she's a significant amount of heft, though; perhaps more than I want in a removal engine. I'm not too satisfied with my white top-end, though, so I'm considering it. At the bare minimum, it seems less swingy than
Sublime Archangel, who comes out earlier and is easier to splash for, which we eliminated a few days ago for being too strong. It would also be a welcome swap from
Angel of Sanctions, who just feels a little dull. As for our other big angel,
Emeria Shepherd looks a little too underpowered for my list, I think, and not terribly exciting, but I'm considering it.
Blue offers the following land interaction:
Grillo's post about
Trade Routes has had me chewing on it for the past few days. The rest of the options are significantly less enchanting, however;
Guardian of Tazeem feels perhaps a little dull,
Meloku the Clouded Mirror is too strong,
Roil Elemental competes poorly with
Admonition Angel.
Roil Elemental is also yet
another exciting blue card, and
already looks like the best pair, so I'm loathe to do anything that isn't straight-out downgrading. We also have
Uyo, Silent Prophet, but she just feels a little confused here. I'm not sure that landfall itself has legs here, but I could see
Deprive and
Trade Routes as subtle tools that help both the land decks and the discard decks.
Sort of a stream of consciousness, and no closer to where we want to be; a stronger
intersection than "blink", "fliers", and "artifact-matters". But that's alright; not every idea is going to have legs. Sometimes, it's just a matter of waiting for WOTC to make the necessary printings. What I'd really like is Hour of Devastation bringing us some more cycling payoffs, especially in
; an updated
Astral Slide is probably something they're aware the playerbase would like, since it's such a beloved and iconic card, and if they lower the power level as I'd expect them to in an effort to compensate for adding an "or discard" clause to it, it might work perfectly in the
blink deck. Fingers crossed, right?
Artifacts 
