Three months in: evaluating Ixalan

It's time to start making adjustments for Rivals of Ixalan.
I didn't get around to doing a set preview for Ixalan, this time was as good as any to do an evaluation of the last round of new cards before I go forward.

Cards I added

White
Adanto Vanguard
This was added as a piece for decks with auras, while also just being a decent attacker for any aggressive white deck. It has been playing out exactly as I thought. It's a fine card that can go into multiple decks and gets better in some. It's even a soldier for minor synergies there. If either lifegain matter decks or vampires as a tribe come back into my cube, this will also be a piece in those decks.
Verdict: Keep

Bishop's Soldier
Again, added as a good target for auras and equipment. It's a little more defensive than the Vanguard, and Grizzly Bears are slightly below standard nowadays. That said, it has been working out surprisingly well in decks that have pump. Even as a random 2-drop in white weenie decks with anthems, it's been decent. I've seen it boarded in against aggressive decks as well. The card surprised me, but I would not play it if I didn't have an aura theme. The same thing about vampires and lifegain applies here.
Verdict: Keep

Sheltering Light
Cheap protection spells are interesting and I wanted to try this one out. I didn't have very high hopes for this, and I was surprisingly unimpressed.
Verdict: Cut

Blue
Siren Stormtamer
Solid little card. 1/1 Flyers for 1 are sort of on the verge of playable anyway, especially with the flying matters cards in my cube. It chips in for a couple of points while protecting a more important target. That said, it's not that important/impressive that it's a windmill slam.
Verdict: Keep

Storm Fleet Aerialist
Again, a solid little card. I run enough aggressively slanted cards in blue that there's a decent chance this gets kicked. Playing a 2 mana 2/3 after turn 2 is still fine as well. However, I'm still not sure if I want this over any 2/1 flyer for 2.
Verdict: No strong opinion

Chart a Course
Good role-player. It supports aggression, but it doesn't need it. Because my cube has a lot of graveyard synergy, the 'drawback' of the card is sometimes even the preferred mode. The only downside is that blue doesn't have a shortage of card draw or looting, which means that it might get cut eventually.
Verdict: Keep

Black
none

Red
Rigging Runner
I'm a sucker for red 1-drops, and when they have +1/+1 counter synergy I can't help myself. This one has some weird tension though: it's not really a 1-drop. You want to play something else on turn 1, attack and then cast this (and another 1-drop). It's the first strike part that keeps it in for now, because there's more pump coming, which gives it a little value as a true 1-drop. In most cubes, however, I don't think this comes anywhere close to inclusion.
Verdict: Keep

Charging Monstrosaur
Pretty good card overall, one of the first red 5-drops I'm actually happy running. It also made me remember why I don't like a lot of the red 5-drops (or higher): red usually doesn't want a lot. Even a card of this quality. I'll keep it in because it really is a good card, but I can see cutting it when something else comes along or it just doesn't get picked up a lot because red doesn't want it.
Verdict: Keep

Green
Merfolk Branchwalker
This one has been playing well. Sort-of-Scry 1 is nice on a 2-drop, it has some graveyard synergy, +1/+1 counter synergy and might draw you a card. Having said that, the fact that you can't control any of it makes it less desirable for my cube. We just don't see a lot of good-stuff decks, decks usually want something specific. I would probably snap-include a 1G 2/1 with a +1/+1 counter. We've concluded a while ago that for archetypes to really work in cube you need to run cards that are actually good and reliable in their respective archetypes. While Branchwalker is very solid, and I'm sure other cubes want it for this exact reason, it doesn't fill a reliable role in mine.
Verdict: Cut

New Horizons
The card I cut this for was a similar ramping land enchantment with a different bonus (can't even remember what it was). I've moved towards the enchantments over the sorcery ramp versions because of the synergy with enchantresses. When this came out I remember thinking: sweet it ramps AND can see play in +1/+1 counter decks. Wrong! There have been no +1/+1 counter decks that were remotely interested in this card. This should be a different ramp card.
Verdict: Cut

Gold
Sky Terror
Yeah, it's good. It does a couple things well for my Boros section: it's aggressive and plays well with pumping auras. On the other hand, it's can feel a little bland. In the end it's just a hard-to-block weenie. I mean, I run Jhessian Infiltrator as well (basically the same card), so I'm not saying I don't want to run it. Boros is not bathing in interesting cards anyway. But, if something better comes along, I wouldn't mind cutting this.
Verdict: Keep

Colorless
none


Conclusion

While nothing spectacular, Ixalan gave my cube a handful of solid role-players. There are a couple of cards I didn't test yet that I can see myself trying, most notably Wanted Scoundrels and some of the vampire cards if Rivals makes me want to look into that tribe again.

When we get a tribal set, the chance that there are less cube staples is lower, so no real surprise there. However, I'm still a little sad that there are also no tribal build-arounds that make me want to see if I can support the tribe.