For me, the reason to cut Swords is that I don't like 'protection from color' as a design for a limited format. Protection is randomly either irrelevant or close to unbeatable.
It seems to me that the most common interactions require little or no mana, or they require a lot of mana paid in installments - I don't think it's a problem to wait a turn to recast your Parallax Wave, for example, which is more or less the worst case scenario I can think of for this argument. Do feel free to add other examples like that because I may be missing something
The most common interactions are with lands, so I agree that they don't cost any mana. Unless you would miss a land drop they do cost a land drop though, which at the early stages of the game is a huge cost.
Whether or not it is a good play to return your Parallax Wave with Skyfisher and wait for a turn to recast it is situational. What is certain, though, is that you play a 2/3 flier at a point in the game where you already have a four mana enchantment in play. So Skyfisher has to provide some serious value in order to compete against Serra Avenger.
The plays that involve returning a permanent you spent mana on to get into play trade mana and therefore time for some future benefit. It is also hard to advance your board presence that way . That meas those plays can only be made profitably when you're not under too much pressure, which in turn depends on the Cube and the playgroup.
Again, I think Kor Skyfisher is a good card. There are good reasons to run it and good reasons to cut it. It is good to have a list of possible interactions with a card, but it is also important to keep in mind how often those interactions are even relevant.
It is a good card with many possible applications. But when you take a closer look at the list of interactions PyreDream posted you'll notice that most of them cost a lot of mana. That means they will not be relevant very often.
The best part about the card is the interaction with moxen, the next best is the interaction with missed land drops. After that there is a long list of situational and mana intensive interactions.
I think the card is quite a lot better in powered than in unpowered lists because the ceiling is a lot higher. I cut it in my unpowered Cube in order to add more humans.
Xathrid Necromancer is easily the worst card on that list. The human count is growing with each new set, but we're not close enough on the amount of good ones to make cards like this one good.
I like Lotus more than Dynamo, since Lotus can effectively cost 2 a reasonable amount of the time by allowing you to play a coloured spell on the same turn. Playing something significant with 3 compared to WWW, say, is much trickier.
This is a good point in general. One of my design goals is to encourage decks that are 1.5-3 colors, so I'm playing Dynamo over Lotus.
I don't think Storm Crow needs an SCD; SCD threads are meant to discuss cards, but what is there to discuss when it comes to Storm Crow? Much like Swords to Plowshares and other obvious inclusions for Cube, I see only one place where bringing them up in a discussion does any good: in the New Card Discussion section, where sentences typically start with "It sure is no Swords to Plowshares/Storm Crow/Lightning Bolt, but I can see testing it at CUBESIZE."
Also, I'm not sure where you guys get the stats on double mana of a given color by turn 4, but I haven't had problems with this. Maybe I'm just really lucky.
If supporting aggressive decks is on your agenda, I'd play the Darkslick Shores cycle. I hope they print enemy lands for that cycle.
Filter Lands can be OK in decks with heavy color requirements, but they do not let you split your colored mana between phases or turns. You may want to tap one of your lands on your turn and keep up the other for a trick on your opponents turn, in some instances you can't do this because of a filter land. I'd stick with what you have. For the same reason I prefer Talisman of Progress over Azorius Signet.
Now that we're discussing Ancestral Vision, I'd like to hear some general thoughts on Ancestral Vision vs. Treasure Cruise. Because I made the experience that even in a Cube without power or fast mana, it can be really hard to find a spot to cast AV after turn one. Turn one is easy, many blue decks don't have anything to cast anyway. After turn one though, I find it really hard to find that single U for quite a few turns in some match-ups (especially all aggressive decks and green ramp).
I don't have experience with Treasure Cruise in Cube, but it seems to me to be similar in a way but much better suited to the situations my blue decks encounter.
I was halfway done writing a reply stating that I would not play either in a small or medium sized Cube, but then I realized that this is not in fact true. As is often the case with what I refer to as "Modern Cube Design", you can select from a variety of cards that do similar things and pick the one(s) that best support(s) the archetypes you want to support.
For combo decks, especially in a powered Cube, Repeal is a very good bounce spell. For tempo decks not so much, because too often you will not be able to cast if for cheap to get another attack in.
Ancestral Vision is a very slow card, so it is not well suited for a fast Cube. On the other hand, it can be very good in a slower Cube. It is much more valuable if turn one is not the only turn you are happy to suspend it.
So I guess I can't really give a general answer to the Ancestral Vision vs. Repeal question.
Hicham, thank you for sharing your thoughts as well!
I think you make a good analysis of the reasons why FTK no longer makes the main deck on a regular basis. In a way FTK not making the cut can be seen as an indicator of how well archetype support works.
Champion of the Parish is a very powerful one drop with the right human count. 6 humans besides the Champion in the deck with a converted mana cost of 1 or 2 makes it pretty reasonable; about two thirds of the starting hands have one other human. By turn two you have a human to play in three out of four games (give or take 2% depending on whether you are on the play or on the draw). In more than one thirds of the games you draw at least two humans by turn three on the play, and that does not even take into account that you may have additional humans at 3 mana. Expectet Power with 6 other humans at 1 or 2 cc: turn two on the play 1.72, turn two on the draw 1.77, turn three on the play 2.12, turn three on the draw 2.24.
I am not sure that Ojutai Exepmlars are the real deal, I guess they could be decent in some variety of UW deck, but 2WW seems like a lot of mana for that.
I've found Ancestral Vision to be an MVP of quite a few decks, refilling the hand midgame for a ridiculously cheap cost. Granted, it is no Ancestral Recall (obviously) and when you draw this late it is feel bad, but this is one of those cards where that risk is completely worth it. There is no way that Treasure Cruise beats this card even if it is a better late game draw.
You want to reload your hand when you have run out of cards, by that point in the game you can cast Treasure Cruise for an affordable price, no matter when you drew it. Ancestral Vision on the other hand only has a relatively small window where drawing it is good.
As for Willbender, from what I understand wtwlf123's playgroup has always liked that card, so it makes perfect sense for them to bring it back with a bigger and better morph theme.
I wonder if Champion of the Parish would not be a better card than Savannah Lions often enough to make the cut? There is a healthy number of humans, after all.
Whether or not it is a good play to return your Parallax Wave with Skyfisher and wait for a turn to recast it is situational. What is certain, though, is that you play a 2/3 flier at a point in the game where you already have a four mana enchantment in play. So Skyfisher has to provide some serious value in order to compete against Serra Avenger.
The plays that involve returning a permanent you spent mana on to get into play trade mana and therefore time for some future benefit. It is also hard to advance your board presence that way . That meas those plays can only be made profitably when you're not under too much pressure, which in turn depends on the Cube and the playgroup.
Again, I think Kor Skyfisher is a good card. There are good reasons to run it and good reasons to cut it. It is good to have a list of possible interactions with a card, but it is also important to keep in mind how often those interactions are even relevant.
The best part about the card is the interaction with moxen, the next best is the interaction with missed land drops. After that there is a long list of situational and mana intensive interactions.
I think the card is quite a lot better in powered than in unpowered lists because the ceiling is a lot higher. I cut it in my unpowered Cube in order to add more humans.
Filter Lands can be OK in decks with heavy color requirements, but they do not let you split your colored mana between phases or turns. You may want to tap one of your lands on your turn and keep up the other for a trick on your opponents turn, in some instances you can't do this because of a filter land. I'd stick with what you have. For the same reason I prefer Talisman of Progress over Azorius Signet.
I don't have experience with Treasure Cruise in Cube, but it seems to me to be similar in a way but much better suited to the situations my blue decks encounter.
For combo decks, especially in a powered Cube, Repeal is a very good bounce spell. For tempo decks not so much, because too often you will not be able to cast if for cheap to get another attack in.
Ancestral Vision is a very slow card, so it is not well suited for a fast Cube. On the other hand, it can be very good in a slower Cube. It is much more valuable if turn one is not the only turn you are happy to suspend it.
So I guess I can't really give a general answer to the Ancestral Vision vs. Repeal question.
I think you make a good analysis of the reasons why FTK no longer makes the main deck on a regular basis. In a way FTK not making the cut can be seen as an indicator of how well archetype support works.
Champion of the Parish is a very powerful one drop with the right human count. 6 humans besides the Champion in the deck with a converted mana cost of 1 or 2 makes it pretty reasonable; about two thirds of the starting hands have one other human. By turn two you have a human to play in three out of four games (give or take 2% depending on whether you are on the play or on the draw). In more than one thirds of the games you draw at least two humans by turn three on the play, and that does not even take into account that you may have additional humans at 3 mana. Expectet Power with 6 other humans at 1 or 2 cc: turn two on the play 1.72, turn two on the draw 1.77, turn three on the play 2.12, turn three on the draw 2.24.
I can see FTK not making main decks, it is a good card but does not necessarily do what you want a four mana card in your red deck to do.
It is a good thing that you test the Exemplars, some cards can't really be evaluated just on paper.
What is the reasoning behind the Flametongue Kavu cut?
I am not sure that Ojutai Exepmlars are the real deal, I guess they could be decent in some variety of UW deck, but 2WW seems like a lot of mana for that.
As for Willbender, from what I understand wtwlf123's playgroup has always liked that card, so it makes perfect sense for them to bring it back with a bigger and better morph theme.
I wonder if Champion of the Parish would not be a better card than Savannah Lions often enough to make the cut? There is a healthy number of humans, after all.