Arcane? (●﹏●;)

Is returning that really necessary?

Sliver gets a pass, but Arcane doesn't?

What's wrong with Slivers? It's a tribe as well as others if not even better since it has a strong mechanical identity.

Arcane is the most known example of "overly parasitic" design.

Slivers were just as parasitic in their first set. Now they're repeated, it's not a problem.

The main fix to Arcane being too parasitic would be, liker the slivers, print a whole bunch more of it.

Not having a strong identity - aye - that is an issue. That it was basically two things "Splice onto" and "Gets a boost when you case spirit/arcane" without any OTHER strong tie between arcane and spirit; yeah; that was a booboo.

Tribal, including Slivers, are heralded as the "best form of parasitism". I only glanced quickly at this thread, but it seems to have discussion on this:

> http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/custom-card-creation/608862-question-best-worst-parasitic-mechanics

This is supposed to be a cube with every* keyword mechanic. This is the entire design goal behind this cube. And this includes Splice. And making a new form of splice would defeat the entire point of it being a tribute set. Which means according the design criteria, returning Arcane is necessary. And in sealed, Arcane is far less parasitic than Infect.

The goal of this cycle are to be dual-lands. Since this Cube includes Domain they want to have to have the basic land types. I decided to go with Tribal Taplands, which left me Allies and Spirits are the cubes two only options of supported tribes. (By necessity as Cohort and Soulshift/Arcane are both highly Parasitic and require heavy support.).

I went with Spirit/Arcane over Allies as they are going to have a higher Asfan in the cube, are due to existence of Arcane are unable to use generic tribal lands while also being unlikely to ever receive official support.. I also considered a Cavern of Souls variant for both Spirits and Arcane but Corrupted Crossroads implies that making it would be dangerous while also being more Parasitic than a tapped dualland. This land is Spirit support with a flavour bonus that gives the user more options instead of less, since some Arcane cards are played in other formats (Kodama's Reach, Desperate Ritual, Goryo's Vengeance and Through the Breach).

(* = black border and works in singleton cube. So for example no Host/Augment or Ripple. Which are also both far more parasitic than Arcane.)

If I were you, I would post that main design goal on the comments page and highlight it so I wouldn't have to explain it time and again as it would appear highlighted on the front page for all new viewers and would-be-commenters to see.

EDIT: Derp, I guess it reads fairly well in the set description...