Hello again, and welcome to EDH Cube Set Review, 2014 edition. My Dragon's Maze thread didn't get a *ton* of attention, but it was also a fairly lackluster set, offering little outside of options for the looser gold sections and maybe a general or two. And since then, a good half dozen EDH Cube threads have popped up in the Cube forums. So, undeterred, I am venturing forth again.
Personally, despite being a Core set, this is one of my favorite recent sets for EDH. There are no Legends and nothing in the way of Multicolor cards, but after 25 Legends in the past 4 sets and a whole block of Multicolor, I'm ready for something different. And M14 provides. There are lots of cards in this set that just tingle my EDH senses and provide cool value interactions, and that's frequently what I'm looking for, not big stupid "ramp to a thousand mana and win the game" spells like Omniscience, Boundless Realms, and Diabolic Revelation. Though Rise of the Dark Realms does provide a bit of that, the bulk of the set is in the lower-mana, cool-interaction category.
Before we delve in though, I'd like to touch on reprints. In addition to having a lot of cool new cards, M14 is also a pretty solid reprint set. Scavenging Ooze is a great green two drop, offering a growing body, life, and graveyard hate in one convenient package. Darksteel Forge is good support for artifact decks. Planar Cleansing is a great board wipe. Traumatize is hard to beat if you support Mill. Sanguine Bond is a powerful card if you support lifegain. Wild Ricochet is always a crowd favorite. Trading Post is a great engine card. None of the Planeswalker reprints are my top picks for Planeswalkers in their colors, but none are unplayable either. There's also a few decent commons/uncommons in the reprints like Archaeomancer,Auramancer, Darksteel Ingot, Fireshrieker, etc.
With that out of the way, let's work our way through the interesting new cards, in color order, and then I'll make my top picks for the set.
White Ajani's Chosen - Several EDH Cubes support the Enchantress archetype. This is a nice little kitty for those decks, giving you extra value on every enchantment cast. As an added bonus, he actually triggers off of enchantments entering the battlefield, not just being cast, so there are shenanigans to be had with Flickerform. I personally don't support Enchantress, but this makes me a little gleeful to think about. Angelic Accord - Lifegain support is also pretty big in White. Most lifegain effects are either big one-shots (things like Invincible Hymn, Beacon of Immortality, and Ancestral Tribute), repeated drips (Soul Sister effects), or Lifelinkers. This doesn't work terribly well with the first two, but is awesome with the third. If you run a lot of lifelink effects, this is a pretty cool enchantment. Archangel of Thune - Here's another big lifegain support card. This one is best with repeated drips, but turning every Soul Sister into a better Cathars' Crusade is pretty scary. Worst case scenario, she can still trigger herself, making her decent Token support. Banisher Priest - Fiend Hunter is a solid card. This has approximately the same effect, minus the ability to permanently exile. Still, more O-ring type effects are always appreciated. Celestial Flare - An interesting piece of white removal. It definitely doesn't measure up to the golden trio of Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Condemn, but after that point things get a bit shaky. It's arguably comparable to Journey to Nowhere and Exile, though probably worse than Wing Shards. Devout Invocation - Doubling your number of creatures, especially when the new ones are all 4/4 fliers, can be pretty backbreaking. However, unless you have Warstorm Surge or a haste outlet, it mostly feels like a greedy overcommitment. There's a lot of great mid-cost token generating cards like Conqueror's Pledge, Increasing Devotion, Captain of the Watch, and Nomads' Assembly that don't require you to give up a turn of bashing and a turn of mana. Imposing Sovereign - Kismet effects can be pretty powerful. Both Urabrask, the Hidden and Blind Obedience are great cards. However, both of those provide a bit more oomph (as a haste outlet 4/4 and an Extorting enchantment respectively) than a 2/1 for the effect. Even Kismet would be preferable IMO, due to its lack of fragility. Path of Bravery - Another interesting effect for Token/Lifegain decks. It's a great drip enabler for Thune, and a passable anthem in its own right.
Blue Colossal Whale - This is a pretty interesting fatty. Evasion coupled with a free Journey to Nowhere every swing can be a great way to keep a board clear and swing through to victory. Just beware, as a Wrath leaves your board clear with all of those opposing creatures free from the belly of the beast, and wraths are super common in EDH Cube. Good thing this is in Countermagic colors I guess. Dismiss into Dream - Blue really gets a lot at the high end in this set. This is an amazing answer to Lightning Greaves and other equipment, while also turning minor effects like Maze of Ith into targeted removal. Elite Arcanist - Personally, I'm not a fan. He's about a thousand times more fragile than Isochron Scepter, and while he removes the limitation of the stick, he also removes the ability to use the spell the turn you play him. He's just asking for you to get two-for-one'd all day long. Jace's Mindseeker - After seeing Chancellor of the Spires, Spelltwine, and Diluvian Primordial in the past few years, this doesn't quite measure up, but it's certainly a cute effect. Windreader Sphinx - Another awesome seven drop. Unlike Sphinx of Uthuun, Chancellor, or Primordial, this 7-drop doesn't provide a powerful etb effect, but it does provide some pretty awesome sustained card draw, especially if you can combine it with a flying token generator like Sacred Mesa or Bitterblossom. It's no Consecrated Sphinx, but it also doesn't draw ire or wreck games like CSphinx does.
Black Dark Prophecy - My EDH Sensor just went off the scale, blew up, and the pieces of it evaporated into rainbows. There's something about this card that just tickles every durdly nerve in my entire body, and I love it. It's like Fecundity and Necropotence had a baby. Grim Return - Not the strongest reanimation spell in the entire game, but it is 3 mana, instant speed, and hits either graveyard, which are three of the four parts of the winning combination that is Necromancy. If only it had the last - Unconditional. Liliana's Reaver - I like this guy a lot. Deathtouch plus a fairly powerful saboteur effect makes for good times. Sure, he's no Grave Titan, but for 2/3rds the mana cost, it's about the best you can expect. He'll often find a target, and he both helps you and hurts them when he does. Rise of the Dark Realms - It seems like they can't go by a set without making a card like this these days. I like it, but I don't like that I like it. It takes all of the thinking out of Living Death and similar cards. Wrath the board, then cast this, win. Shadowborn Demon - This one I like that I like. It's like Bone Shredder's big brother. Flying Murder (definite upgrade from Shredder's Terror), and then it probably dies next turn, but you can keep it around if you want it. Honestly, it might be better off dead, because then you can Phyrexian Reclamation it.
Red Academy Raider - It's a step up from Goblin Rummager, but still a bit weak as far as red looting goes. Barrage of Expendables - Interesting, but not worth paying R every time I want to use my Goblin Bombardment just to shave 1 off of the initial cost. Burning Earth - Seems quite nasty. A lot of decks get extra greedy on their mana since a land pick is almost never a wasted pick. Monored already does quite well with Blood Moon and similar, this is another good addition. Also works well with Gisela, Blade of Goldknight. Chandra, Pyromaster - Everything Red ever wanted in a Planeswalker. The +1 doesn't do much damage-wise, but the blocking removal is pretty key. The +0 is card draw in a color starved for it. And the Ult has potential for Shenanigans the likes of which can't be found anywhere else. Cheap, good starting loyalty. Definitely in if you're running two planeswalkers in red (the only other one I'd consider over her is Chandra Ablaze, because WHEEELS!). Nudges Koth out to #3. Goblin Diplomats - Definitely an interesting choice. Combined with Propaganda effects, you can force your opponents to attack each other, and profit in the resulting chaos. Ogre Battledriver - In the Web of War is a cool effect. Putting in on a (cheaper) body makes it more vulnerable, but also makes it more delicious. Tooth and Nail into it + Avenger of Zendikar likely spells one dead opponent. Scourge of Valkas - Dragon Tribal is very much a possible thing in EDH Cube. There are multiplepossiblegenerals in severalcolor-combos. They've got severaltutors, and tribal effects. Scourge is a relatively cheap one with a solid tribal effect, and it's an effect that can get downright nutty when cloned. Rite of Replication? 6 Dragons each see 5 entering and trigger dealing 6 damage per trigger - that's 180 damage divided out in 30 chunks of six for those of you bad with math. That's pretty much guaranteed to end the game on the spot.
Green Elvish Mystic - Llanowar Elves aren't the strongest in EDH cube due to the propensity of wraths and the acceptability of 2 and 3 mana ramp, but if you like them, here's another. Garruk, Caller of Beasts - Green was hungering for another planeswalker, with Garruk's 1 and 2 being the only mono-green playable Planeswalkers in existence (Nissa being unplayably bad and Relentless counting as BG). Garruk 4 does not disappoint. His +1 is crazy card advantage and threat-drawing, and his emblem is deliciously powerful. His -3 won't see much use, but it doesn't need to, even if the occasional t4 Worldspine Wurm is a possibility. Into the Wilds - Seems very good. It's not quite Oracle of Mul-Daya good, but it does help draw you gas and accelerate you. Plays exceptionally well with Sensei's Divining Top, Mirri's Guile, Sylvan Library, Scroll Rack, and similar, all of which are EDH Staples. Kalonian Hydra - I have trouble accepting that "vanilla" beaters are good, no matter how efficient they are, but this guy is just crazy. He puts Primordial Hydra to shame, getting bigger faster for cheaper, always having trample, and having some other cool +1/+1 counter interaction to boot. Primeval Bounty - Value city, the value reckoning. Ramping? Gain tons of life. Playing dudes? Get free beasts. Doing anything else (including ramping?) get bigger dudes. None of what it does is broken on its own, but it all adds up to a ton of value. This has even become a Mental Magic favorite of mine already. Savage Summoning - Overall, despite doing a lot of little things (Flash, uncounterability, +1/+1 counter), I feel like this is too minor to be worth including. Sporemound - I love both Emeria Angel and Rampaging Baloths. This isn't quite either of them, but it's still a lot of value out of ramping and that always makes me happy.
Colorless Ring of Three Wishes - Planar Portal is good. Not great, but good, especially in mono-color decks that can be desperate for tutoring. This cuts a mana off of both the initial cost and the tutoring, which is pretty big. Sure, it can only be used 3 times, but if you've Demonic Tutor'd three times and no one has stopped you, you're probably winning anyways. Strionic Resonator - This card just oozes possibilities. Even if it's just repeatedly using ETB abilities, there's tons of value any deck can get out of this. Encroaching Wastes - It's not the best Strip Mine effect. It's not even topthree. It might beat out Ghost Quarter, but honestly, you probably want to play them all anyways. It's very important to give all of the colors outs to Mazes and super-mana lands like Cradle and Coffers.
So that's the set. I told you there was a lot. My top 10 picks are:
10. Garruk
9. Chandra - Planeswalkers are good, but not insane in EDH
8. Scourge of Valkas
7. Archangel of Thune - These are cute and powerful but not for everyone
6. Primeval Bounty - Valyooooo
5. Shadowborn Demon
4. Windreader Sphinx - Great additions to existing options
3. Ogre Battledriver - Great haste enabler and also great with tokens
2. Into the Wilds - Pretty amazing ramp option, recurring but not a creature
1. Dark Prophecy - I want like ten of this card, in foil
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Thanks very much for the review. I think the only card I'm gonna use from the set is angelic accord and maybecolossal whale (because the promo version is just so damn epic). I'm completely disappointed with this set, and probably won't even pick up my customary uncommon/common set. I'll save my moolah for FTV20 and Theros.
Really? I'd think if you like Accord, you'd love Archangel. How do you plan on consistently triggering Accord? (Trostani is about the only way I can think of). Dark Prophecy, Ogre Battledriver, and Into the Wilds are cards I'd definitely include even if I wasn't expanding my cube, and there's a lot of powerful and cool effects to consider here.
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I'm planning on adding the following to my 800+ card cube
Dark Prophecy
Academy Raider
Ogre Battledriver
Ring of Three Wishes
Strionic Resonator
Encroaching Wastes
I'm also considering Tenacious Dead which could be a fine card for B/x recursion decks. I'm very doubtful that Strionic Resonator will live up to the hype but it might play out better than I think.
I'd be interested in discussing Into the Wilds a little bit more before I dismiss it. My biggest complaint is that it costs 4 mana which is already packed with great cards and being an enchantment instead of a creature really hurts it because green can tutor for creatures but not enchantments which is especially relevant for a card that wants to be built around.
This set has a lot of cards that are almost good but either cost too much or got neutered.
You reminded me about battledriver, which I am planning to replace mad prophet with, but into the wilds and prophecy I can wait a couple months on.
For accord, my first thought was using it in conjunction with lifelinkers, or heavy hitting equips, like loxodon warhammer.
The big appeal of Accord, IMO, is the ability for it to trigger on every end step. To really maximize it, you need some way to get multiple instances of 4 life in a turn per turn rotation. I'm not really sure what the best way to accomplish that is at the moment.
I'm planning on adding the following to my 800+ card cube
Dark Prophecy
Academy Raider
Ogre Battledriver
Ring of Three Wishes
Strionic Resonator
Encroaching Wastes
I'm also considering Tenacious Dead which could be a fine card for B/x recursion decks. I'm very doubtful that Strionic Resonator will live up to the hype but it might play out better than I think.
I'd be interested in discussing Into the Wilds a little bit more before I dismiss it. My biggest complaint is that it costs 4 mana which is already packed with great cards and being an enchantment instead of a creature really hurts it because green can tutor for creatures but not enchantments which is especially relevant for a card that wants to be built around.
This set has a lot of cards that are almost good but either cost too much or got neutered.
Additions look pretty solid, but I'd take Chandra over the raider.
As for Tenacious Dead, I know it isn't the *worst* card, but the fact that it's just SO MUCH WORSE than Reassembling Skeleton really kills it for me. It's like Skeleton if the only way you could ever bring it back is if you have 1B at the instant it dies, and you also can bring it back after discarding or milling it. As far as recursive creatures go, I put it beneath Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, Nether Traitor, Bloodghast, and probably several others who I'm not even currently running, like Endless Cockroaches.
As far as Into the Wilds goes, I don't feel like the four drop is overcrowded at all. Oracle of Mul-Daya is my only creature in green besides Wolfbriar Elemental (who is really an X spell), and my non-creatures are limited to the quartet of Skyshroud Claims (Explosive Vegetation, Hunting Wilds, Ranger's Path), Reap and Sow, Garruk Wildspeaker, Natural Order, Harmonize, and Greater Good. That's a reasonable number of non-creatures, but it's pretty low in the permanents department.
As far as its power level goes, it seems pretty high. Not quite Oracle high, but it does get missed by the most common wraths. With any deck manipulation, it gets downright silly, but even without, it increases your chances of drawing gas while also accelerating you, which seems win-win.
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Additions look pretty solid, but I'd take Chandra over the raider.
The raider isn't very good but at least he's a good equiment carrier and he'll help some of the R/X commanders like Rakdos and Aurelia. Plus the other looters see a good amount of play. I usually play 5-6 man games so the walkers don't live very long unless you can protect them with repeated fogs. I can see her being decent with the red blow up the world cards but I don't think they need any more support.
As for Tenacious Dead, I know it isn't the *worst* card, but the fact that it's just SO MUCH WORSE than Reassembling Skeleton really kills it for me. It's like Skeleton if the only way you could ever bring it back is if you have 1B at the instant it dies, and you also can bring it back after discarding or milling it. As far as recursive creatures go, I put it beneath Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, Nether Traitor, Bloodghast, and probably several others who I'm not even currently running, like Endless Cockroaches.
I don't think he's THAT bad, at least I like him more than Gravecrawler. Endless Cockroaches is probably better though and I'm not running them either.
As far as Into the Wilds goes, I don't feel like the four drop is overcrowded at all. Oracle of Mul-Daya is my only creature in green besides Wolfbriar Elemental (who is really an X spell), and my non-creatures are limited to the quartet of Skyshroud Claims (Explosive Vegetation, Hunting Wilds, Ranger's Path), Reap and Sow, Garruk Wildspeaker, Natural Order, Harmonize, and Greater Good. That's a reasonable number of non-creatures, but it's pretty low in the permanents department.
As far as its power level goes, it seems pretty high. Not quite Oracle high, but it does get missed by the most common wraths. With any deck manipulation, it gets downright silly, but even without, it increases your chances of drawing gas while also accelerating you, which seems win-win.
I run quite a few more 4cc spells in green than you do and the other sections have a lot of stuff going on at 4 mana so maybe that's why we're looking at the card differently. Without deck manipulation I guess it's still an OK spell but I have a feeling that's normally how it's going to be used since the deck manipulation cards that this is best with are already high picks. If it was at least an Exploration with the bonus on upkeep I think it would have made it in easily.
The raider isn't very good but at least he's a good equiment carrier and he'll help some of the R/X commanders like Rakdos and Aurelia. Plus the other looters see a good amount of play. I usually play 5-6 man games so the walkers don't live very long unless you can protect them with repeated fogs. I can see her being decent with the red blow up the world cards but I don't think they need any more support.
I don't think he's THAT bad, at least I like him more than Gravecrawler. Endless Cockroaches is probably better though and I'm not running them either.
I run quite a few more 4cc spells in green than you do and the other sections have a lot of stuff going on at 4 mana so maybe that's why we're looking at the card differently. Without deck manipulation I guess it's still an OK spell but I have a feeling that's normally how it's going to be used since the deck manipulation cards that this is best with are already high picks. If it was at least an Exploration with the bonus on upkeep I think it would have made it in easily.
If you've got a lot of equipment support, Raider gets a bit better. He seems pretty strong with Sword of Fire and Ice I suppose.
I prefer Gravecrawler to Tenacious D. He may not be always able to come back, but he comes back for half the cost and you don't need to pay immediately, plus you can discard or mill him and then replay him. Also, replaying him counts as a spell, so he synergizes greatly with Pontiff of Blight.
Deck manipulation cards are all fairly high picks, but Mirri's Guile is likely to go a few picks before being snagged, at the very least. I still think it's a good card. With a land density of 40%, that means even blind, it's a 40% chance each turn of giving you a free land drop, and it reduces your chances of drawing a land from 40% to 16%, meaning you'll see a lot more gas.
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Personally, despite being a Core set, this is one of my favorite recent sets for EDH. There are no Legends and nothing in the way of Multicolor cards, but after 25 Legends in the past 4 sets and a whole block of Multicolor, I'm ready for something different. And M14 provides. There are lots of cards in this set that just tingle my EDH senses and provide cool value interactions, and that's frequently what I'm looking for, not big stupid "ramp to a thousand mana and win the game" spells like Omniscience, Boundless Realms, and Diabolic Revelation. Though Rise of the Dark Realms does provide a bit of that, the bulk of the set is in the lower-mana, cool-interaction category.
Before we delve in though, I'd like to touch on reprints. In addition to having a lot of cool new cards, M14 is also a pretty solid reprint set. Scavenging Ooze is a great green two drop, offering a growing body, life, and graveyard hate in one convenient package. Darksteel Forge is good support for artifact decks. Planar Cleansing is a great board wipe. Traumatize is hard to beat if you support Mill. Sanguine Bond is a powerful card if you support lifegain. Wild Ricochet is always a crowd favorite. Trading Post is a great engine card. None of the Planeswalker reprints are my top picks for Planeswalkers in their colors, but none are unplayable either. There's also a few decent commons/uncommons in the reprints like Archaeomancer,Auramancer, Darksteel Ingot, Fireshrieker, etc.
With that out of the way, let's work our way through the interesting new cards, in color order, and then I'll make my top picks for the set.
White
Ajani's Chosen - Several EDH Cubes support the Enchantress archetype. This is a nice little kitty for those decks, giving you extra value on every enchantment cast. As an added bonus, he actually triggers off of enchantments entering the battlefield, not just being cast, so there are shenanigans to be had with Flickerform. I personally don't support Enchantress, but this makes me a little gleeful to think about.
Angelic Accord - Lifegain support is also pretty big in White. Most lifegain effects are either big one-shots (things like Invincible Hymn, Beacon of Immortality, and Ancestral Tribute), repeated drips (Soul Sister effects), or Lifelinkers. This doesn't work terribly well with the first two, but is awesome with the third. If you run a lot of lifelink effects, this is a pretty cool enchantment.
Archangel of Thune - Here's another big lifegain support card. This one is best with repeated drips, but turning every Soul Sister into a better Cathars' Crusade is pretty scary. Worst case scenario, she can still trigger herself, making her decent Token support.
Banisher Priest - Fiend Hunter is a solid card. This has approximately the same effect, minus the ability to permanently exile. Still, more O-ring type effects are always appreciated.
Celestial Flare - An interesting piece of white removal. It definitely doesn't measure up to the golden trio of Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Condemn, but after that point things get a bit shaky. It's arguably comparable to Journey to Nowhere and Exile, though probably worse than Wing Shards.
Devout Invocation - Doubling your number of creatures, especially when the new ones are all 4/4 fliers, can be pretty backbreaking. However, unless you have Warstorm Surge or a haste outlet, it mostly feels like a greedy overcommitment. There's a lot of great mid-cost token generating cards like Conqueror's Pledge, Increasing Devotion, Captain of the Watch, and Nomads' Assembly that don't require you to give up a turn of bashing and a turn of mana.
Imposing Sovereign - Kismet effects can be pretty powerful. Both Urabrask, the Hidden and Blind Obedience are great cards. However, both of those provide a bit more oomph (as a haste outlet 4/4 and an Extorting enchantment respectively) than a 2/1 for the effect. Even Kismet would be preferable IMO, due to its lack of fragility.
Path of Bravery - Another interesting effect for Token/Lifegain decks. It's a great drip enabler for Thune, and a passable anthem in its own right.
Blue
Colossal Whale - This is a pretty interesting fatty. Evasion coupled with a free Journey to Nowhere every swing can be a great way to keep a board clear and swing through to victory. Just beware, as a Wrath leaves your board clear with all of those opposing creatures free from the belly of the beast, and wraths are super common in EDH Cube. Good thing this is in Countermagic colors I guess.
Dismiss into Dream - Blue really gets a lot at the high end in this set. This is an amazing answer to Lightning Greaves and other equipment, while also turning minor effects like Maze of Ith into targeted removal.
Elite Arcanist - Personally, I'm not a fan. He's about a thousand times more fragile than Isochron Scepter, and while he removes the limitation of the stick, he also removes the ability to use the spell the turn you play him. He's just asking for you to get two-for-one'd all day long.
Jace's Mindseeker - After seeing Chancellor of the Spires, Spelltwine, and Diluvian Primordial in the past few years, this doesn't quite measure up, but it's certainly a cute effect.
Windreader Sphinx - Another awesome seven drop. Unlike Sphinx of Uthuun, Chancellor, or Primordial, this 7-drop doesn't provide a powerful etb effect, but it does provide some pretty awesome sustained card draw, especially if you can combine it with a flying token generator like Sacred Mesa or Bitterblossom. It's no Consecrated Sphinx, but it also doesn't draw ire or wreck games like CSphinx does.
Black
Dark Prophecy - My EDH Sensor just went off the scale, blew up, and the pieces of it evaporated into rainbows. There's something about this card that just tickles every durdly nerve in my entire body, and I love it. It's like Fecundity and Necropotence had a baby.
Grim Return - Not the strongest reanimation spell in the entire game, but it is 3 mana, instant speed, and hits either graveyard, which are three of the four parts of the winning combination that is Necromancy. If only it had the last - Unconditional.
Liliana's Reaver - I like this guy a lot. Deathtouch plus a fairly powerful saboteur effect makes for good times. Sure, he's no Grave Titan, but for 2/3rds the mana cost, it's about the best you can expect. He'll often find a target, and he both helps you and hurts them when he does.
Rise of the Dark Realms - It seems like they can't go by a set without making a card like this these days. I like it, but I don't like that I like it. It takes all of the thinking out of Living Death and similar cards. Wrath the board, then cast this, win.
Shadowborn Demon - This one I like that I like. It's like Bone Shredder's big brother. Flying Murder (definite upgrade from Shredder's Terror), and then it probably dies next turn, but you can keep it around if you want it. Honestly, it might be better off dead, because then you can Phyrexian Reclamation it.
Red
Academy Raider - It's a step up from Goblin Rummager, but still a bit weak as far as red looting goes.
Barrage of Expendables - Interesting, but not worth paying R every time I want to use my Goblin Bombardment just to shave 1 off of the initial cost.
Burning Earth - Seems quite nasty. A lot of decks get extra greedy on their mana since a land pick is almost never a wasted pick. Monored already does quite well with Blood Moon and similar, this is another good addition. Also works well with Gisela, Blade of Goldknight.
Chandra, Pyromaster - Everything Red ever wanted in a Planeswalker. The +1 doesn't do much damage-wise, but the blocking removal is pretty key. The +0 is card draw in a color starved for it. And the Ult has potential for Shenanigans the likes of which can't be found anywhere else. Cheap, good starting loyalty. Definitely in if you're running two planeswalkers in red (the only other one I'd consider over her is Chandra Ablaze, because WHEEELS!). Nudges Koth out to #3.
Goblin Diplomats - Definitely an interesting choice. Combined with Propaganda effects, you can force your opponents to attack each other, and profit in the resulting chaos.
Ogre Battledriver - In the Web of War is a cool effect. Putting in on a (cheaper) body makes it more vulnerable, but also makes it more delicious. Tooth and Nail into it + Avenger of Zendikar likely spells one dead opponent.
Scourge of Valkas - Dragon Tribal is very much a possible thing in EDH Cube. There are multiple possible generals in several color-combos. They've got several tutors, and tribal effects. Scourge is a relatively cheap one with a solid tribal effect, and it's an effect that can get downright nutty when cloned. Rite of Replication? 6 Dragons each see 5 entering and trigger dealing 6 damage per trigger - that's 180 damage divided out in 30 chunks of six for those of you bad with math. That's pretty much guaranteed to end the game on the spot.
Green
Elvish Mystic - Llanowar Elves aren't the strongest in EDH cube due to the propensity of wraths and the acceptability of 2 and 3 mana ramp, but if you like them, here's another.
Garruk, Caller of Beasts - Green was hungering for another planeswalker, with Garruk's 1 and 2 being the only mono-green playable Planeswalkers in existence (Nissa being unplayably bad and Relentless counting as BG). Garruk 4 does not disappoint. His +1 is crazy card advantage and threat-drawing, and his emblem is deliciously powerful. His -3 won't see much use, but it doesn't need to, even if the occasional t4 Worldspine Wurm is a possibility.
Into the Wilds - Seems very good. It's not quite Oracle of Mul-Daya good, but it does help draw you gas and accelerate you. Plays exceptionally well with Sensei's Divining Top, Mirri's Guile, Sylvan Library, Scroll Rack, and similar, all of which are EDH Staples.
Kalonian Hydra - I have trouble accepting that "vanilla" beaters are good, no matter how efficient they are, but this guy is just crazy. He puts Primordial Hydra to shame, getting bigger faster for cheaper, always having trample, and having some other cool +1/+1 counter interaction to boot.
Primeval Bounty - Value city, the value reckoning. Ramping? Gain tons of life. Playing dudes? Get free beasts. Doing anything else (including ramping?) get bigger dudes. None of what it does is broken on its own, but it all adds up to a ton of value. This has even become a Mental Magic favorite of mine already.
Savage Summoning - Overall, despite doing a lot of little things (Flash, uncounterability, +1/+1 counter), I feel like this is too minor to be worth including.
Sporemound - I love both Emeria Angel and Rampaging Baloths. This isn't quite either of them, but it's still a lot of value out of ramping and that always makes me happy.
Colorless
Ring of Three Wishes - Planar Portal is good. Not great, but good, especially in mono-color decks that can be desperate for tutoring. This cuts a mana off of both the initial cost and the tutoring, which is pretty big. Sure, it can only be used 3 times, but if you've Demonic Tutor'd three times and no one has stopped you, you're probably winning anyways.
Strionic Resonator - This card just oozes possibilities. Even if it's just repeatedly using ETB abilities, there's tons of value any deck can get out of this.
Encroaching Wastes - It's not the best Strip Mine effect. It's not even top three. It might beat out Ghost Quarter, but honestly, you probably want to play them all anyways. It's very important to give all of the colors outs to Mazes and super-mana lands like Cradle and Coffers.
So that's the set. I told you there was a lot. My top 10 picks are:
10. Garruk
9. Chandra - Planeswalkers are good, but not insane in EDH
8. Scourge of Valkas
7. Archangel of Thune - These are cute and powerful but not for everyone
6. Primeval Bounty - Valyooooo
5. Shadowborn Demon
4. Windreader Sphinx - Great additions to existing options
3. Ogre Battledriver - Great haste enabler and also great with tokens
2. Into the Wilds - Pretty amazing ramp option, recurring but not a creature
1. Dark Prophecy - I want like ten of this card, in foil
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"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
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For accord, my first thought was using it in conjunction with lifelinkers, or heavy hitting equips, like loxodon warhammer.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Dark Prophecy
Academy Raider
Ogre Battledriver
Ring of Three Wishes
Strionic Resonator
Encroaching Wastes
I'm also considering Tenacious Dead which could be a fine card for B/x recursion decks. I'm very doubtful that Strionic Resonator will live up to the hype but it might play out better than I think.
I'd be interested in discussing Into the Wilds a little bit more before I dismiss it. My biggest complaint is that it costs 4 mana which is already packed with great cards and being an enchantment instead of a creature really hurts it because green can tutor for creatures but not enchantments which is especially relevant for a card that wants to be built around.
This set has a lot of cards that are almost good but either cost too much or got neutered.
The big appeal of Accord, IMO, is the ability for it to trigger on every end step. To really maximize it, you need some way to get multiple instances of 4 life in a turn per turn rotation. I'm not really sure what the best way to accomplish that is at the moment.
Additions look pretty solid, but I'd take Chandra over the raider.
As for Tenacious Dead, I know it isn't the *worst* card, but the fact that it's just SO MUCH WORSE than Reassembling Skeleton really kills it for me. It's like Skeleton if the only way you could ever bring it back is if you have 1B at the instant it dies, and you also can bring it back after discarding or milling it. As far as recursive creatures go, I put it beneath Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, Nether Traitor, Bloodghast, and probably several others who I'm not even currently running, like Endless Cockroaches.
As far as Into the Wilds goes, I don't feel like the four drop is overcrowded at all. Oracle of Mul-Daya is my only creature in green besides Wolfbriar Elemental (who is really an X spell), and my non-creatures are limited to the quartet of Skyshroud Claims (Explosive Vegetation, Hunting Wilds, Ranger's Path), Reap and Sow, Garruk Wildspeaker, Natural Order, Harmonize, and Greater Good. That's a reasonable number of non-creatures, but it's pretty low in the permanents department.
As far as its power level goes, it seems pretty high. Not quite Oracle high, but it does get missed by the most common wraths. With any deck manipulation, it gets downright silly, but even without, it increases your chances of drawing gas while also accelerating you, which seems win-win.
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The raider isn't very good but at least he's a good equiment carrier and he'll help some of the R/X commanders like Rakdos and Aurelia. Plus the other looters see a good amount of play. I usually play 5-6 man games so the walkers don't live very long unless you can protect them with repeated fogs. I can see her being decent with the red blow up the world cards but I don't think they need any more support.
I don't think he's THAT bad, at least I like him more than Gravecrawler. Endless Cockroaches is probably better though and I'm not running them either.
I run quite a few more 4cc spells in green than you do and the other sections have a lot of stuff going on at 4 mana so maybe that's why we're looking at the card differently. Without deck manipulation I guess it's still an OK spell but I have a feeling that's normally how it's going to be used since the deck manipulation cards that this is best with are already high picks. If it was at least an Exploration with the bonus on upkeep I think it would have made it in easily.
If you've got a lot of equipment support, Raider gets a bit better. He seems pretty strong with Sword of Fire and Ice I suppose.
I prefer Gravecrawler to Tenacious D. He may not be always able to come back, but he comes back for half the cost and you don't need to pay immediately, plus you can discard or mill him and then replay him. Also, replaying him counts as a spell, so he synergizes greatly with Pontiff of Blight.
Deck manipulation cards are all fairly high picks, but Mirri's Guile is likely to go a few picks before being snagged, at the very least. I still think it's a good card. With a land density of 40%, that means even blind, it's a 40% chance each turn of giving you a free land drop, and it reduces your chances of drawing a land from 40% to 16%, meaning you'll see a lot more gas.
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