Dear Troubled Healer, 

<3

You are special to me. I think you are the only card I ever fell in love with after you were cut from the cube. Let me elaborate. 

My dear and good friend Frank is my main guy when it comes to cube design. He is a very skilled Magic player and especially a skilled drafter. He is very quick to evaluate cards, so it is really valuable to ask his input for card choices. He is also the person I play the most cube with. Frank has 2 cubes of his own, and you Troubled Healer, used to be in one of them: his Boomer Cube. 

Frank his Boomer Cube is an old border only cube, combining premodern cards with the old frame reprints. I see myself as the co-designer of that cube seeing all the time I’ve spent helping him iterate. In the early iteration you were part of the cube. You had your place in White based aggro decks, but sacrificing a land for your effect is a big cost to pay, you were not good enough. I fought so hard to have Frank cut you from his cube, but Frank had a weak spot for you, you were one of his darlings. 

The saying goes: “kill your darlings”. I believe this does not always apply to cube design, since your darlings could be one of your design goals. But Frank is a former Pro Tour competitor, a spike, a competitive player. He wants his Boomer Cube to be great in the hands of 8 spikes in a competitive setting, and as a result the “kill your darlings” rule does apply. So eventually, after many, many, many pleads from me, he cut you. 

After he cut you, I fell in love with you. Because you became our inside joke, our running gag. Since that day we have had so many laughs together with your spirit. And in that spirit you will live forever in that cube. 

With love

Hanjo