abundant harvest looks like a pretty solid cantrip, honestly. green can afford to have one or two of this kind of effect, and i think the upside of drawing past dead cards (mostly...) is worth not dumping into the gy.
arcbound shikari makes me want robots to be viable tbh.
bone shards is good removal if you cultivate your black spells to make it so. being able to discard makes it way better than bone splinters, obviously.
break ties is very seldom a dead card which is cool.
i feel like mr. frog samurai doesn't line up well with existing green 2s, but i'm ok with being wrong.
flametongue yearling probably gets the nod over fire imp. the flexibility is worth the cc, and it scales really well too. probably a staple.
junk winder looks promising? if you have three tokens this costs 4, which is great for a 5/6, and then the triggered ability can just end games. i feel like this is pretty great.
ravenous squirrel looks to be a good archetype enabler in an aristocrat style shell, because it is both an enabler and a payoff for 1 mana. i think this gets there if you support that style of deck, but might be a stretch in b/g instead of other colour combos.
scurry oak is probably strong. the ability to go both wide and tall simultaneously is strong, and it's very easy to evolve as a 1/2. wcs of being a 3 mana 1/2 is absolutely terrible though lmao.
step through... we have good wizards right? adeliz looking spicy...
here i am with my thoughts on the full spoiler. i remember liking a lot of the cards as they were spoiler, but didn't read too much into them before now.
clarion spirit: this feels like one of the better value bears in white. man, would be great if i actually played mtg so i have more of an idea how often double spelling is in a w/x deck. but flying tokens is great value, and i can't imagine double spelling in an aggressive deck is super hard? might just look way better than it plays, but i'll never know haha.
usher of the fallen: obvious staple. surprised to see this wasn't rare when it was spoiled.
avalanche caller: this looks like a stupidly strong defensive card, and a pretty reasonable aggressive card too. hexproof on this effect is massive, as it dodges land destruction potential, and 4/4 on turn 3 is large. obviously snow is the limiting factor here.
behold the multiverse: considering the base card without foretell is probably fringe cubeable, having the option to spread this out for cheaper later feels like pure upside. really depends on how one wants to design their card draw suite really.
bind the monster: this is a staple right? this is miles ahead of any blue removal spell. but going back itt, nobody is really talking about this card? am i overvaluing it?
frost augur: feels like drawing through lands in a cube that supports snow on your 1 mana creature is nuts. bonus wizard synergy.
bloodsky berserker: i feel like triggering this once is great. how easy is that to do? i have no idea.
draugr's helm: looking at this as a 4/4 menace for 5 that leaves behind equipment, doesn't seem too bad as an aggressive curve topper. the equip cost is very expensive, but also +2/+2 and menace is kinda of really strong, so this might actually be sick.
feed the serpent: how desperate are we for planeswalker removal i guess? because this is as good as we've gotten, and it exiles creatures too.
poison the cup: murder with a decent whack of upside, seems good to me.
no red cards
boreal outrider: seems good in a snow environment. full of value.
masked vandal: i missed the exile on this first time around. definitely worth playing if you want to change up your noncreature removal suite, as 2 mana for this is pretty decent.
spirit of the aldergard: kind of like abominable treefolk #2 but monocolour, which is definitely worth playing in the snow cubes.
kardur's vicious return: this does a LOT for 4 mana, and in an aristocrat style deck, all of it is super relevant. love it.
maja, bretagard protector: 5 mana 2/3 sure is bad, but this is inevitability in spades. very powerful if it has any time, but coming down that late makes it very unreliable.
moritte of the frost: simic is kind of uninteresting, and despite being a 5 mana clone, it does copy any permanent you control, and gets way bigger than what it copies.
fearless fledgling: i feel like this is good enough. not always having flying is definitely not ideal, but it just gets bigger so easily that it'll hit a point where it doesn't necessarily need the evasion. sejiri shelter: this may compare favourably with shelter but i have no way of knowing until i play with it. so please, give feedback y'all. skyclave cleric: everything about this card is what control decks want to do, so it may actually just be a good card.
bubble snare: i like the flexibility, and if the 1 mana mode comes up enough, it's super efficient. silundi vision: this helps progress your game plan in two different ways, but might be a little too weak on the spell side. digging six deep is a lot though. windrider wizard: i think this has really good upside for a wind drake, since i wanna push both spells and wizards.
acquisitions expert: second point of toughness on this is good, and this is good enough without other party members as well. blackbloom rogue: 2/3 menace is fine, and letting an aggressive deck cheat on lands a little might be a big selling point. as a 5/3 this is obviously disgusting but 8 cards is a ton. bloodchief's thirst: targeting planeswalkers is now relevant, and the flexibility of this card is great. sorcery speed hurts but it's still a fine option. feed the swarm: definitely not the most powerful creature removal option we have, but a maindeckable enchantment removal option in black is nice if you want it. malakir rebirth: compares well with undying evil imo. having the land mode for a card which is slightly niche is a nice upside to have, especially since this still costs 1.
akoum warrior: feels great, honestly. again, no idea how well it will actually play, but i'm very optimistic about it. skyclave geopede: if this can consistently attack as a 5/3 trampler, i feel like that's good for 3 mana. the floor of a 3/1 trampler isn't ideal, though. cautiously optimistic?
bala ged recovery: 3 mana for regrowth still feels fair, and being a land also is just a fine edge case. i definitely like it.
the set feels slightly weak and also slightly parasitic, so i'm not surprised we don't get much in the way of super good includes. but as always, we have enough to think about with interesting new cards, which is all i can ask for.
yeah leelue, you have probably the most thorough posts around. i don't read a lot of walls of text these days, but yours are definitely in that minority.
also i am frustrated by snow, because i want it to work, but can't find a way for it to work. i hate the basic snow lands idea because then there is no cost to them. i love how drafting snow lands is a legit thing in their environment, but it's a horrible idea for cube.
spare supplies looks good, honestly. two clues in one card is just a very reasonable rate, despite not being able to draw two immediately.
iridescent hornbeetle looks nuts, but i don't actually think it's very good. a 5 mana 3/4 is a terrible rate in green, and there are a plethora of solid 5s that provide immediate value, and even some with lasting value. i like the idea of the counters deck, but this is so specific to that deck, and i think we just have better options at green 5s.
kazuul's fury // kazuul cliffs strikes me as interesting as it is a narrow removal spell, which i think plays well with being a land. kabira takedown // kabira plateau is the same but i think probably slightly stronger. these cards though man, just impossible to evaluate...
fearless fledgling feels like a staple? i wonder how big the conditional flying will turn out being on this, but also one trigger and you're probably pretty happy means this shouldn't disappoint you too often until it's a terrible lategame topdeck.
malakir blood-priest looks low key good. if its average case is etb drain 2, that feels pretty ok in an aggressive deck. really depends on how the creature type breakdown ends up going though, which is huge for a lot of these party creatures. might be one to remember at the end of spoilers.
rockslide sorcerer feels average considering its base body. a wind drake looter is a lot stronger than a pinging hill giant imo. i wanna push the wizard deck though so maybe...
i agree broken wings feels worse than wilt, but this is by no means bad, and is probably your second choice for this effect i wanna say?
bubble snare looks great, imo. scaling removal like this works well for me, and i feel like it's not even bad in its 1 mana mode.
skyclave geopede does a lot of damage, and i don't think a 3/1 trampling body is anywhere near as bad as the lower cmc options with this effect.
how do we feel about fissure wizard? rummage etb on a 2/1 is simple, creature types are relevant. doesn't feel bad, but just maybe not exciting enough to really show its strength.
feed the swarm might be ok if you're powering down removal. having more noncreature removal is also welcome. idk.
goma fada vanguard seems strong if you push warriors as an archetype.
mind carver looks AWESOME and i'm honestly loving this trend with black equipment. i wonder how many cards 8 cards is in practice though. feels like it could be hard to achieve sometimes.
akoum hellhound is definitely better in red due to lack of good competition, but i feel like the card is just not good without fetchlands.
grotag bug-catcher i think attacks as a 3/2 fairly easily but we have more consistent options.
prowling felidar looks like it's gunna be nuts in its native environment, but is probably too slow in cube. but then again, in a gw ramp deck, this could still just be gas, especially since it's so good in combat when it does gain some size thanks to vigilance.
the dfc lands... man. cards like these are brutal to evaluate. sejiri shelter seems good, but i feel like it compares poorly with shelter. bala ged recovery isn't terribly overcosted, and is an interesting comparison with fungal rebirth. i don't think you need four regrowths though, and eternal witness and regrowth are obviously the top 2 options. i honestly really like akoum warrior? 6 mana 4/5 trample is definitely below rate, but we've never had a ramp creature that can just be a land for free before. sure we have landcyclers, but there are pros and cons both ways. this doesn't cost mana to be a land, but also loses graveyard synergy, but ALSO has insane flicker synergy if you can flicker the land.
i have to say, i really want a dfc spell land which is naturalize. that would be super welcome.
anticognition is probably just not there, but the lategame relevance is looking pretty juicy.
grotag night-runner doesn't do much for me. funny how black gets audacious thief and red gets this.
i'm already wanting to support adeliz, but even without that, i think windrider wizard looks great. wind drake with very big upside is a super good addition to pretty much any cube imo.
nothing else i'm super sold on yet, but we have a very early winner i think.
halana looks powerful though. a bit do-nothing initially, but 2 mana isn't terribly expensive, and a 3/4 reach body is actually a fairly good blocker. cards like this that have the potential to just take over the game are always worth looking carefully at, and i dig it on first glance.
is the power of oketra's attendant not from the fact that you can cycle it and still cast it, or cast it twice? yeah a 5 mana 3/3 isn't great, but two 5 mana 3/3s in one card is a lot better, and a two mana mode on top of that is pretty great too.
spiteful prankster is pretty nice, definite upgrade over hissing iguanar which is nice since the body on iguanar was always a bit sketchy.
stone haven pilgrim looks ok but way too narrow of a trigger, unless you support the enchantment theme in g/w.
how do we feel about chained brute? feels like the next most cubeable card out of the new cards. maybe not amazing, but honestly the untap isn't as costly as it could be, and it's a slight variation on a sac outlet. not saying it's particularly good though...
abundant harvest looks like a pretty solid cantrip, honestly. green can afford to have one or two of this kind of effect, and i think the upside of drawing past dead cards (mostly...) is worth not dumping into the gy.
arcbound shikari makes me want robots to be viable tbh.
bone shards is good removal if you cultivate your black spells to make it so. being able to discard makes it way better than bone splinters, obviously.
break ties is very seldom a dead card which is cool.
i feel like mr. frog samurai doesn't line up well with existing green 2s, but i'm ok with being wrong.
flametongue yearling probably gets the nod over fire imp. the flexibility is worth the cc, and it scales really well too. probably a staple.
junk winder looks promising? if you have three tokens this costs 4, which is great for a 5/6, and then the triggered ability can just end games. i feel like this is pretty great.
ravenous squirrel looks to be a good archetype enabler in an aristocrat style shell, because it is both an enabler and a payoff for 1 mana. i think this gets there if you support that style of deck, but might be a stretch in b/g instead of other colour combos.
scurry oak is probably strong. the ability to go both wide and tall simultaneously is strong, and it's very easy to evolve as a 1/2. wcs of being a 3 mana 1/2 is absolutely terrible though lmao.
step through... we have good wizards right? adeliz looking spicy...
clarion spirit: this feels like one of the better value bears in white. man, would be great if i actually played mtg so i have more of an idea how often double spelling is in a w/x deck. but flying tokens is great value, and i can't imagine double spelling in an aggressive deck is super hard? might just look way better than it plays, but i'll never know haha.
usher of the fallen: obvious staple. surprised to see this wasn't rare when it was spoiled.
avalanche caller: this looks like a stupidly strong defensive card, and a pretty reasonable aggressive card too. hexproof on this effect is massive, as it dodges land destruction potential, and 4/4 on turn 3 is large. obviously snow is the limiting factor here.
behold the multiverse: considering the base card without foretell is probably fringe cubeable, having the option to spread this out for cheaper later feels like pure upside. really depends on how one wants to design their card draw suite really.
bind the monster: this is a staple right? this is miles ahead of any blue removal spell. but going back itt, nobody is really talking about this card? am i overvaluing it?
frost augur: feels like drawing through lands in a cube that supports snow on your 1 mana creature is nuts. bonus wizard synergy.
bloodsky berserker: i feel like triggering this once is great. how easy is that to do? i have no idea.
draugr's helm: looking at this as a 4/4 menace for 5 that leaves behind equipment, doesn't seem too bad as an aggressive curve topper. the equip cost is very expensive, but also +2/+2 and menace is kinda of really strong, so this might actually be sick.
feed the serpent: how desperate are we for planeswalker removal i guess? because this is as good as we've gotten, and it exiles creatures too.
poison the cup: murder with a decent whack of upside, seems good to me.
no red cards
boreal outrider: seems good in a snow environment. full of value.
masked vandal: i missed the exile on this first time around. definitely worth playing if you want to change up your noncreature removal suite, as 2 mana for this is pretty decent.
spirit of the aldergard: kind of like abominable treefolk #2 but monocolour, which is definitely worth playing in the snow cubes.
kardur's vicious return: this does a LOT for 4 mana, and in an aristocrat style deck, all of it is super relevant. love it.
maja, bretagard protector: 5 mana 2/3 sure is bad, but this is inevitability in spades. very powerful if it has any time, but coming down that late makes it very unreliable.
moritte of the frost: simic is kind of uninteresting, and despite being a 5 mana clone, it does copy any permanent you control, and gets way bigger than what it copies.
fearless fledgling: i feel like this is good enough. not always having flying is definitely not ideal, but it just gets bigger so easily that it'll hit a point where it doesn't necessarily need the evasion.
sejiri shelter: this may compare favourably with shelter but i have no way of knowing until i play with it. so please, give feedback y'all.
skyclave cleric: everything about this card is what control decks want to do, so it may actually just be a good card.
bubble snare: i like the flexibility, and if the 1 mana mode comes up enough, it's super efficient.
silundi vision: this helps progress your game plan in two different ways, but might be a little too weak on the spell side. digging six deep is a lot though.
windrider wizard: i think this has really good upside for a wind drake, since i wanna push both spells and wizards.
acquisitions expert: second point of toughness on this is good, and this is good enough without other party members as well.
blackbloom rogue: 2/3 menace is fine, and letting an aggressive deck cheat on lands a little might be a big selling point. as a 5/3 this is obviously disgusting but 8 cards is a ton.
bloodchief's thirst: targeting planeswalkers is now relevant, and the flexibility of this card is great. sorcery speed hurts but it's still a fine option.
feed the swarm: definitely not the most powerful creature removal option we have, but a maindeckable enchantment removal option in black is nice if you want it.
malakir rebirth: compares well with undying evil imo. having the land mode for a card which is slightly niche is a nice upside to have, especially since this still costs 1.
akoum warrior: feels great, honestly. again, no idea how well it will actually play, but i'm very optimistic about it.
skyclave geopede: if this can consistently attack as a 5/3 trampler, i feel like that's good for 3 mana. the floor of a 3/1 trampler isn't ideal, though. cautiously optimistic?
bala ged recovery: 3 mana for regrowth still feels fair, and being a land also is just a fine edge case. i definitely like it.
spare supplies: white card draw!
the set feels slightly weak and also slightly parasitic, so i'm not surprised we don't get much in the way of super good includes. but as always, we have enough to think about with interesting new cards, which is all i can ask for.
also i am frustrated by snow, because i want it to work, but can't find a way for it to work. i hate the basic snow lands idea because then there is no cost to them. i love how drafting snow lands is a legit thing in their environment, but it's a horrible idea for cube.
iridescent hornbeetle looks nuts, but i don't actually think it's very good. a 5 mana 3/4 is a terrible rate in green, and there are a plethora of solid 5s that provide immediate value, and even some with lasting value. i like the idea of the counters deck, but this is so specific to that deck, and i think we just have better options at green 5s.
kazuul's fury // kazuul cliffs strikes me as interesting as it is a narrow removal spell, which i think plays well with being a land. kabira takedown // kabira plateau is the same but i think probably slightly stronger. these cards though man, just impossible to evaluate...
fearless fledgling feels like a staple? i wonder how big the conditional flying will turn out being on this, but also one trigger and you're probably pretty happy means this shouldn't disappoint you too often until it's a terrible lategame topdeck.
malakir blood-priest looks low key good. if its average case is etb drain 2, that feels pretty ok in an aggressive deck. really depends on how the creature type breakdown ends up going though, which is huge for a lot of these party creatures. might be one to remember at the end of spoilers.
rockslide sorcerer feels average considering its base body. a wind drake looter is a lot stronger than a pinging hill giant imo. i wanna push the wizard deck though so maybe...
i agree broken wings feels worse than wilt, but this is by no means bad, and is probably your second choice for this effect i wanna say?
bubble snare looks great, imo. scaling removal like this works well for me, and i feel like it's not even bad in its 1 mana mode.
skyclave geopede does a lot of damage, and i don't think a 3/1 trampling body is anywhere near as bad as the lower cmc options with this effect.
how do we feel about fissure wizard? rummage etb on a 2/1 is simple, creature types are relevant. doesn't feel bad, but just maybe not exciting enough to really show its strength.
feed the swarm might be ok if you're powering down removal. having more noncreature removal is also welcome. idk.
goma fada vanguard seems strong if you push warriors as an archetype.
mind carver looks AWESOME and i'm honestly loving this trend with black equipment. i wonder how many cards 8 cards is in practice though. feels like it could be hard to achieve sometimes.
grotag bug-catcher i think attacks as a 3/2 fairly easily but we have more consistent options.
prowling felidar looks like it's gunna be nuts in its native environment, but is probably too slow in cube. but then again, in a gw ramp deck, this could still just be gas, especially since it's so good in combat when it does gain some size thanks to vigilance.
the dfc lands... man. cards like these are brutal to evaluate. sejiri shelter seems good, but i feel like it compares poorly with shelter. bala ged recovery isn't terribly overcosted, and is an interesting comparison with fungal rebirth. i don't think you need four regrowths though, and eternal witness and regrowth are obviously the top 2 options. i honestly really like akoum warrior? 6 mana 4/5 trample is definitely below rate, but we've never had a ramp creature that can just be a land for free before. sure we have landcyclers, but there are pros and cons both ways. this doesn't cost mana to be a land, but also loses graveyard synergy, but ALSO has insane flicker synergy if you can flicker the land.
i have to say, i really want a dfc spell land which is naturalize. that would be super welcome.
anticognition is probably just not there, but the lategame relevance is looking pretty juicy.
grotag night-runner doesn't do much for me. funny how black gets audacious thief and red gets this.
nothing else i'm super sold on yet, but we have a very early winner i think.
halana looks powerful though. a bit do-nothing initially, but 2 mana isn't terribly expensive, and a 3/4 reach body is actually a fairly good blocker. cards like this that have the potential to just take over the game are always worth looking carefully at, and i dig it on first glance.
sphinx of the guildpact seems like it's head and shoulders above the rest, but not exactly worth comboing for.
;_;
stone haven pilgrim looks ok but way too narrow of a trigger, unless you support the enchantment theme in g/w.
how do we feel about chained brute? feels like the next most cubeable card out of the new cards. maybe not amazing, but honestly the untap isn't as costly as it could be, and it's a slight variation on a sac outlet. not saying it's particularly good though...