I just (don't) like it

After doing my 2017 in review, and coming to the conclusion that the last year was good but uneventful, I set myself the task of finding something new and exciting for my cube. While my cube was in a sweet place, I felt I wanted it sweeter.

The first thing I did after I found the time for a Rivals of Ixalan update was add both a life gain matters and a vampire tribal theme. I went up to 600 to save myself the trouble of cutting too many cards I liked.

It lasted a day.

Only a handful of test drafts on CubeTutor after the update, I already started looking for alternatives. Why did this feel off? We were stoked to add both a new archetype and a new tribe. It's not like there aren't other narrow archetypes in the cube, nor are all the archetypes super duper powerful. Then it hit me. We just didn't like most of the cards it required to set up. No feeling of joy when seeing them in the cube. Just a lot of 'meh'. Instead of adding excitement and spice, I took excitement away!

Maybe it sounds obvious. After all, cubes are designed to reflect the personal preference of their owners. Still, I was caught off guard by how important it was for me to like individual cards. Even before I really got to play with them. To be fair, both the life gain archetype and the vampire tribe didn't look that powerful to begin with. But the same thing can be said about other archetypes that I tried and surprised me.

Not sure where I'm going with this, other than that I (re)discovered that I think 'I just (don't) like it' can be a valid argument to cut or run something in your cube. Regardless if it's a decision based on power level, format health, nostalgia or even art. There's a consensus that running Sol Ring in peasant cube is a bad idea because it's too powerful. But what if a playgroup just gets really excited to play with the iconic card? I remember reading somewhere that someone didn't include a (good) card because the art freaked him/her out.

I just added Ravenous Chupacabra to my cube over Bone Shredder. You'd think that most cube owners should have an easy time to make this switch. I did too, but only because I the word Chupacabra is fun and after I realized I was able to play with Bone Shredder in my friend's Urza block cube.

In the meantime, I finished a pretty huge update to my cube and am super excited to see it play out. Some of the cards are probably bad, but I don't care because they do something I like.
That's my favorite thing about cube. It can be all the things that you, personally, enjoy about Magic.