Cube update November 8, 2016

Time for an update to the cube! I'm making a whopping 35 changes, so let's get into them.

Draft the new changes on CubeTutor!

White
Out: Cloistered Youth, Sandsteppe Outcast, Wall of Resurgence, Intangible Virtue
In: Palace Jailer, Orzhov Advokist, Swell of Courage, Soltari Visionary
Cloistered Youth is good, but I think I have enough 2-drops for the decks that want them and the others are just better. Outcast/Wall are fine, but I needed the room. Virtue is the biggest cut, for me at least. My last Stats and Numbers article showed that the number of token creation was on the low side to support Virtue.
Advokist and Swell both support +1/+1 counters, with Swell also filling the role of team-wide pump for the token decks that still exist.
Palace Jailer is a card I've been wanting to try out, but haven't gotten around to. Should be fun with blink, and as card draw engine behind Ghostly Prisons and such.
Soltari should fit right into the white part of different pump archetypes while also giving a bit more enchantment hate.

Blue
Out: Vexing Scuttler, Seal of Removal, Narcolepsy, Singing Bell Strike
In: Archeomancer, Thought Scour, Snap, Deranged Assistant
While I like Wretched Gryff enough, Vexing Scuttler is just worse than Archaeomancer in a cube with both the blue double-blink effects. I also wanted to cut a couple of the blue enchantments for some instants after the Stats and Numbers article showed that support for Isochron Scepter was a little thin.
Snap (slightly) fills the gap that's left by cutting 3 blue removal spells. Time will tell if I need more (and if I will miss the enchantments). Thought Scour is not necessarily the best card to put on a Scepter, but it does draw cards, can mill your opponent out if need be and goes very well into UB, UR and/or UG graveyard-style decks.
Deranged Assistant is a fun little card that is sneakily quite good in any blue deck that wants to accelerate, but (again) pushes a little more into the direction of the graveyard in blue. Hopefully this also gives UR a different feeling deck than 'spells matter'.

Black
Out: Havoc Demon, Festering Goblin, Indulgent Aristocrat, Blood-Chin Rager
In: Harsh Scrutiny, Phyrexian Reclamation, Orc Sureshot, Sinuous Vermin
These cuts where quite easy. Havoc Demon, Festering Goblin and Blood-Chin are decent, but unexciting. Indulgent Aristocrat just never really worked out very well.
I finally got around to buying an Orc Sureshot to give (mainly BW) creature/token decks another tool.
Reclamation is a nod towards grinder decks (GB), while also being an enchantment for the BG or BW enchantment decks.
Vermin and Harsh Scrutiny are just good cards I want to try out.

Red
Out: Seal of Fire, Madcap Skills, Boggart Ram-Gang, Sparksmith, Rolling Thunder, Besmirch, Fiery Temper, Violent Eruption
In: Brute Force, Titan's Strength, Dynacharge, Slith Firewalker, Swirling Sandstorm, Frenzied Fugue, Cathartic Reunion, Genju of the Spires
Red got another big update. Somehow red seems to be the hardest to pin down archetype-wise, as I've been having trouble with R in combination with G, U and B. I'm not just accepting RU as spells matter and both RB and RG as different variations of aggro, even though that's red's comfort zone. Especially since red is my favorite color.
Over the last month or so, I've been trying a push for red as the 4th graveyard color (discard/draw), give it a big part of the +1/+1 counter pie and lastly: big red (sweeper) control. This gives me the following interesting archetypes: BR Reanimate, UR combo (Psychic Spiral or Sphinx's Tutelage) using the graveyard for value, RG +1/+1 counters, RG flashback/graveyard, and big control decks in all 3 combinations. This should explain most of the inclusions.
RW has tokens (Dynacharge) and double strike (the single target pump) as main archetypes. All 3 of the spells also work well in more aggressive RU spells decks without resorting to burn.
The cuts are basically cards that did their job without being very special.
Besmirch goes out for the new Frenzied Fugue, which looks like a very good card.

Green
Out: Kessig Prowler, Kozilek's Predator, Somberwald Stag, Predator's Howl, Overrun, Gaea's Embrace
In: Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, Harvester Troll, Masked Admirers, Golgari Brownscale, Incremental Growth, Strangleroot Geist
Like white, cuts from green are getting very hard. Most of the cards serve a very specific goal or are just very good overall. The token cards where the easiest to cut because by cutting Intangible Virtue there's nothing that cares about the actual card-type 'token' and GB sacrifice wasn't really getting played. Overrun and Embrace got cut for cards with +1/+1 counters. That leaves Kessig Prowler and Somberwald Stag as overall very powerful cards, but with no real synergy where I want it.
After noticing that green's +1/+1 counter support could use some extra cards, I put some more in while still trying to buff other archetypes. Pit-Skulk (WG/UG pump), Harvester Troll (sacrifice), Growth (swarm), Geist (sacrifice). The Admirers and Brownscale come back for another run to buff all the graveyard decks with green.
Note to myself: be careful not to cut too many enchantments to support other stuff.

Gold
Out: Momentary Blink, Spike Jester, Catacomb Sifter, Lashweed Lurker, Rally the Peasants, Weapons Trainer, Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
In: Migratory Route, Terminate, Nyx Weaver, Ongoing Investigation, Lightning Helix, Sunhome Guildmage, Juniper Order Ranger
Blink isn't really seeing play a lot, I want to try out the new card and I like the other cards better.
Jester got cut for another bland card. This goes a little against my guild card philosophy of not wanting to have cards the color doesn't already do. However, I want some more premium Isochron Scepter targets and there's nothing I want to run in Rakdos at the moment anyway.
Same goes for Helix. Rally was seeing less play lately, so I thought I'd try some other pump in white and red. Weapons Trainer is a fun build-around, but after thinking about it I think I want the more reliable creature/pump.
Vitu-Ghazi didn't really do much, and Juniper is very powerful in the right deck. It also gives me the Juniper+persister+sac-outlet left-field combo potential.
Lurker was meh, and Investigation was not bad when I had it before. I like that it can be a tool for UG enchantments, UG graveyard, and U/x swarm.
Catacomb Sifter is great in a vacuum, but the GB sac deck didn't come up often enough. Nyx Weaver is similar in application, but supports the GB enchantment deck some more.

Colorless
Out: Serrated Arrows, Gathan Raiders
In: Snare Thopter, Ash Barrens
Arrows doesn't get played here, even though I like it. Raiders was included to give non-blue graveyard decks a way to get stuff in the graveyard, but I think we've gotten enough green and red discard outlets lately.
Thopter looks sweet as both an aggro curve-topper and not a bad target for assorted pump. Ash Barrens is the new sliced bread.