Looks like we might end up cubing tomorrow, about time I got off my lazy butt and logged the edits that I've made over the last few weeks (mostly tonight):
OUT
IN
Thank god for Cubetutor, there's no way I would have remembered these one-for-one swaps. Anyways, there are no changes to the white section of the cube, but there are some major ones throughout the rest of it with ideas and strategies that I want to try out/revisit.
In blue I'm trying to see how well
Gifts Ungiven can work with the new reanimator theme that I'm looking to push. Looking over my list I think I can create a pretty sweet BUG or Abzan styled reanimator deck with various enablers that I've plugged in here and there.
Laboratory Maniac was a card that I had never really focused upon much but there was some discussion here a while back that inspired me to give it a second look and see what I come up with this time around. Maybe there's enough self-mill and card draw now to make that alt win-con a reality (especially with some other goodies I've thrown in!).
Icefall Regent was a powerful but boring option so I figured that I'd just try out
Enclave Cryptologist for now. A filter option for control decks, a way to loot things into the graveyard, and another one-drop that might finally be able to help curve someone into Thassa beatdown? I think I've only seen it happen once, but maybe I'm finally at the critical mass of 1 + 2 drops in blue to make it a real thing? Who knows. I've been looking for a few other blue 1 drops I might want to run and I have a copy now after taking apart a deck so why not. Icefall would routinely wheel in drafts and mop up certain matchups but it just wasn't all that impressive ever. I'll be on the lookout for something more interesting in OGW.
Misdirection and
Force Spike did the least amount of work amongst my blue spells, they were pretty easy cuts this time around.
In black I'm trying out a lot of new cards and revisiting some old stuff. I've brought back Gary and
Geralf's Messenger because I wanted to bring back Mono-Black devotion while also giving aggro decks some reach. I remember there was a B/G deck a while back in one of my drafts and I just thought to myself that both of these would have been great in there to provide reach while beating in with Gravecrawlers and Bloodsoaked Champions. Maybe I'll see someone live this dream tomorrow. Easy cuts here were
Vampire Nighthawk and
Sidisi, Undead Vizier who are both nice cards, but neither is all that impressive. Nighthawk was originally there to hold back some of the bigger dragons that I had in the cube a few months back, but I'm cutting back on many of those in upcoming updates.
Scourge of Nel Toth and
Ob Nixilis Reignited are in as new finishers in black, flipped out Doomwake Giant for Scourge while I swapped out some red card (I think Magmatic Insight) to make room for Ob. I'm excited to see Scourge in action, I've got high hopes for it as a fair reanimation target that isn't oppressive that also happens to double as a sac outlet. I've been on a planewalker reduction kick lately, but I just had to find a slot for Ob because he was too sweet to ignore. He does everything I want in a black based control deck. Finally, for spells I've added Painful Truths (which is really a 3 color card), Wretched Confluence and Transgress the Mind. Truths is probably one of the sweetest non-blue card draw options we have and is a payoff for those who went three colors, Confluence is one of the most fair of the cycle and I love the design of it, and Transgress is to just bump up the disruption suite up by one card.
Red had a handful of updates with me going back up to double
Young Pyromancer because I wanted to push spellslinger a little more with the upcoming Jori En card. I also swapped out Thunderbreak Regent for an Akoum Firebird to see what it would be like. Thunderbreak was just really good in basically every deck you played it in. A 4/4 on red that did it all was great but was quite boring. The Firebird is just a test run for now, probably will be swapped out if I find something sweeter in the next set to swap into that slot. I just wanted an aggro option to fill in the void for now. The card I'm most excited for is
Magus of the Wheel however. A base 3/3 for 2R in red is pretty uncommon and having a wheel effect that you could fire off at instant speed is just crazy. He can help push a red based reanimation strategy forward with
Feldon of the Third Path, can refill a red player's hand with burn to finish off the opponent, or maybe even become friendly with Lab Maniac and lead to some explosive Grixis Mill deck in the future. I dunno what will happen, I just think this card has a lot of potential and is well worth trying out in all of our cubes.
I've been unhappy with my green section for a while because so many cards were undesirable unless you were splashing for them. I think I might be closer to bringing green up to snuff by getting rid of some do nothings (
Restore and
Setessan Tactics) while bringing in a real payoff for a ramp deck (
Avenger of Zendikar) and some sweet deckbuilding options (
Life from the Loam,
Sylvan Library,
Collected Company).
Deranged Hermit was a cut this time around because that card was way too stupid to up against. I don't think aggro can beat that card, straight up. If they ramp into it early I don't see how you get past a million squirrels.
Loaming Shaman was sadly too low powered for my environment and never made any decks or did any work for us here. Maybe I'll revisit it in a couple drafts if reanimator becomes too strong or I need other checks. I also liked the new snake witness from the commander so I'm giving it a try. This brings my green regrowth effects up to 4 and I think that's a good payoff if you end up going base green. A recursive green strategy seems like it could be cool though I did get wrecked by an E-Wit +
Kolaghan's Command loop like two drafts back so I'm going to keep an eye on that.
Finally, we're on to multi/colorless adds. I've swapped Ral Zarek for
Dack Fayden because Ral was usually just a goodstuff guy who made his way to the final 40 on virtue of being a walker in this cube. He didn't really inspire any creative deckbuilding. On the other hand, I've had Dack sitting on the sidelines for a while but now might be the right time to give him another go with this new reanimator theme I'm trying out.
Grove of the Burnwillows was moved from ULD (wtf was I thinking) to main cube because I had seen R/G decks in way too many drafts that got there because there was such a great fixing option outside of the main draft. I want there to be an actual payoff if you manage to draft Grove +
Punishing Fire, not just something given to you in ULD after picking up the Fire in the main draft.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth is my favorite card printed from the new Commander set and the inspiration behind all this new reanimator stuff I'm trying out. I made an EDH deck around here and she is incredible value at all points of the game. She's pretty much everything I've ever wanted from a reanimator card with a good sized body, valuable abilities, and great art. She definitely seems like the kind of card that would make someone want to go in on a reanimator deck while still being really good as just an addition to any GBx deck by rebuying threats from the graveyard. I expect good things from her. The last addition is one that I'm pretty excited for after reading more good things about it in the forums:
Mesmeric Orb. I recently took apart my Sidisi EDH deck so I had one of these lying around and I can finally get around to it. It's a weird enabler for something like
Living Death, can help with the Lab Man self-mill plan, and can serve as a secondary win-con in this 40 card format. I think there's enough incidental hate to keep it in check and I know for sure that there are decks that will punish a deck that tries to use this as it's primary win-con (Bx Aggro, Burn, etc.). I'll give it a run and see what happens. I can't wait to see someone win with some super jank deck that also happens to have Kozilek in there just to serve as a reset. Literally just counters/wipes/removal and mill. Please god let this happen.
Assuming we fire and have cool decks, I'll come back with some draft report in the next couple of days along with my BFZ potential adds and whatnot.