In almost every cube I have played or curated there are two types of cards, which I think can be broadly summed up by calling them leaders and followers. The leaders are the bombs, they dictate your direction, colours, and ultimately archetype. They are the gravity wells which you navigate your draft and deckbuilding around. Then there are the followers, typically support and filler cards. These cards will fill out your curves and get you to the right number of threats and removal, and you will pick the ones that best work with your leaders/bombs.
Adding and removing cards from a cube that fall into the follower group of cards does little to change things, at least on a card by card basis. The effect is small and the meta stays much the same. Especially if you are simply upgrading a like for like card. When a new leader card enters the fray there is a whole mix up in the format. New archetypes can arise, the relative strengths of the existing ones can change and it can cause a load of old follower cards to no longer cut it. The flip side of this latter point is also the case, there are often follower support and filler cards that might have not quite cut it before that, when a new leader comes along they are the perfect cards to answer the call.
As a cube curator, getting the little details right on your follower portion of cards is arguably more important than the leaders. It is the crossing of the ts and dotting of the is. It is certainly harder for a number of reasons. For one, it is more subtle. Secondly it is a lot less well known, The bombs are quickly outed in constructed and limited play, everyone knows what the hot new cards are and they will do fine when thrown into any old cube. There are however a lot lot more follower cards vying for the remaining cube slots, and they are of a much more homogenous and indistinguishable power level. They are also often hidden in the back catalogues of cards resurfacing to usefulness rather than a new release under the spotlight.
The well designed cubes reveal themselves through well chosen follower cards that really let the leader bomb cards shine. Cards that work with multiple leaders so as to cohesively tie the cube together and make for a smooth experience. Trying to talk generally about magic is always tricky and so I think it is easiest to look at one example and discuss the ripple changes that it can affect.
This Ajani dude is very much a leader. His floor is pretty outstanding and he has ceiling to go with that for days. You don't need to do anything for this card to be over powered. His presence in my cube has helped push white aggro decks back to the top of the pile and give a boost to white in general, not to mention wildly increasing the instance of Boros aggro and Orzhov sacrifice decks. This is a perfect example of a leader card in that it has had a pronounced effect on the frequency, performance, and composition of established archetypes. Recognizing it as such I have found myself tailoring a selection of follower cards.
Ajani having so many strings to his bow has a number of ways you can support him. Being a cheap aggressive white dork he naturally fits into aggressive white decks, which were already a fully supported tier one archetype. Indeed, he is a good stand alone aggressive two drop than scales a lot better with anthems than most, so off to a pretty strong start. You wouldn't think we needed the followers. That sort of isn't the point, it is not about need, it is about interest and interlinking and discovery. It is worth doing because when you do the things people enjoy it more, and have better stories to tell.
So, what previously unsupported things can we do to support Ajani? We can add cats. More cats out there means more instances of dying cats and therefor more chance to flip thing dude into even more power and value. Just being a cat is otherwise pretty unimportant, this bonus synergy with one other card is not making a significant difference, really it is more of a tie breaker, and so the reality of it is likely being as a minor as replacing your Spirited Companion with a Helpful Hunter.
Alternatively we can focus more on seeing off the cat we get with Ajani by focusing on some productive ways to sacrifice dorks. Black and red are pretty well covered on this front in most cubes but there are some options open to white that are typically less explored. While these are not often as good as the Rakdos options they can offer more construction and draft options thanks to being more playable. As an example, I have found Spawning Pit to be surprisingly good in most creature heavy shells.
We can also just go a bit more contained and have a cat that has a built in means to usefully self sacrifice!
My favourite new pursuit however has been finding stealth red cards I can play in my white deck as a means to support Ajani. For full ceiling mode you want to flip your Ajani while in possession of a red thing, then shit gets pretty wild! Every time I read it I am surprised by how powerful and unfair it all is. You can shoot people right in their dumb unexpecting faces! Obviously this makes Ajani perform best in Boros, but you can't or don't always want to be Boros, and it is nice to have that potential ceiling available even if you don't want to reply on red mana. The aggro decks want that consistency most so unless you are forced into it or have great fixing I typically like to keep it lean, clean, and mono where possible.
So, what cards cat I put in my white deck that give red things without costing red mana? And which of those can cut it in the high powered world of cube? First up we have the hybrid mana cards. Your Figure of Destiny and Boros Reckoner style cards. While Reckoner is a bit too tired looking these days even to get a recall for supporting synergy the Figure still holds up rather well. Instant speed level up has ensured it has outlasted all the actual level up creatures! I rather like Duergar Hedge-Mage too but that is a card you do actually want Mountains in your list for even if you don't need them.
Some of the manland duals are reasonable ways to sneak a red card into your deck. Yes, these are pointless if you don't have red mana to support them but they are not dead cards like a proper red card should you not find the mana, they are still EtB tapped Plains at worst. A low cost include, and given an extra boost by the being red synergy! You can often sneak a little bit of bonus utility into a mana base supporting just manlands as well, be that a Sunbaked Canyon or Elegant Parlour. Both Restless Bivouac and Needle Spire have some good synergy in white aggressive decks and while I don't always play them when the the option is there, I often do. I find if I want a bit more lands for consistency I become worried about flooding and when that is the case cards like these, and the things that in turn support them like the Sunbaked Canyon, all start to appeal way more.
Next on our little list we have the sneaky flip cards that become red despite white appearances. There is both Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute and Town Gossipmonger // Incited Rabble. The Cathar has been impressing since its inclusion and has not yet had a cull. This little boost should help keep it in for longer. The Gossip has been in and out plenty of times over the years and is a surprisingly impressive little card. Firebreathing is not common in white and so this dude does a better job of scaling than most other cheap dorks, and it does so without being a complete dud as an early beater. That being said, it is now quite old and is no match for the kinds of one drop we see in Modern Horizons...
Last on my list of sneaky red white cards we have Glimmer Lens, or really any "For Mirrodin!" card for that matter. Lens is just white and good. It is one of those cards that really ties a room together. It just has synergy with almost everything going on in a white aggro deck. The power level of the card is just fine, but with all those nice little synergy perks the card is one I don't recall having ever left out of a white aggro deck.
And with that, happy fine tuning your cubes. And have fun trying to shoot people to death with surprise red things in your white deck.
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