MTG Salvation

I've struggled with a reply because once again you did a great job with the review and it is certainly worth $ to be put on a major site.

Your list seems solid but I always seem to think of cards from a set in a slightly different way. Your inclusion level seems about right. The four main groups for me are.

Card s the Cube was Looking For
Hanweir Garrison is amazing. Until rabblemaster was printed I didn't think we would ever get a 3 drop for the most aggressive deck in cube, and the creatures in other colors have gotten better making my red deck more lackluster. Easily my number one pick. Curving into Hero, Rider, or the God is just wonderful. Now I just need a 2 mana Keldon Warlord or and Alpha Orcish Oriflamme.

Selfless Spirit I think I am alone in this but I have felt that white two drops have needed some help. Each set we get another one and it is for the most part another bear, leaving stoneforge to combo and an aggro decks to just peck away. We have been due for a Pegasus with an important ability to come around forever and we finally got it. Number two in the set for me.

Didn't Really Need it But Better Make Room
Thalia I didn't need to hear anyone else and didn't need to try it. They were able to make a card that felt so much like one of my favorite cube cards without being an extraneous functional reprint. Number 3 in the set for my cube. White 3s are just bursting at the seems.

Collective Defiance Just great to me. Red needs as much burn as you can cram in but is also needs to do other things. Very worth it down to 360 in my opinion even if you have to drop a lightning strike or arc lightning variant. Number 5.

Imprisoned by the Moon This is like a green counterspell or white discard, nobody was looking for it, but it is certainly good enough. My number 7

Gisela I had originally thought this would be out as a little redundant but my testing is putting it more in the Brimaz/Baneslayer super power team versus the Sublime archangel not special enough camp. Number 8

Archetype Cards Inclusion level varies widely by cube but their effect is important enough for the decks they support to be really cool.
Kessig Prowler, number 6 in the set for me and with Warden, Hierarch etc. I feel you can support green aggro with just this and E1 added. Wow
Eldrich Evolution is my number 4 card only becasue I never thought wizards would print another effect of this type, certainly not at a cheaper cost that it's cousins.
Cryptbreaker - Lots of action from a 1 drop, someday I might change out my black section for all zombies
Docent of Perfection - The biggest body yet on a spells matter card
Warf Infiltrator - I get why people like it but I have about 15 2 drop blue creature my group like better that we are not playing.
Dark Salvation - Token lovers in black will get their cloudgoat ranger someday, but until then this could be beloved by some.

Pile it On (Cards that are fine but aren't so new feeling)
Liliana, Emrakul, Noose Constrictor, Grim Flayer, Tamiyo, Unsubstantiate, Mausoleum Wanderer, Spell Queller, Ishkanow, Collective Brutality , Cryptolith Fragment all seem good enough to me to be cubeable, even if there aren't doing anything for me right now. They are cards I could toy with some day.

Overall just a metric ton for anyone who likes cube.

@dschumm: Thanks for taking the time to do that write-up! As you say, tons of good cube stuff in this set.

Thanks wtwlf123 for the article. I wasn't paying too much attention throughout spoiler season and completely missed Selfless Spirit was Stormfront Pegasus with upside. I know some powered cubes play Pegasus but it hasnt been a consideration for me until now with Selfless Spirit.

I thought Collective Brutality would make an appearance on your list towards the bottom 5. I thought Reanimator would want this card for the cheap 2 in 1 discard and removal disruption. Is it just simply not impactful enough? Otherwise great article as always.

Quote from DrewReaLee »

Thanks wtwlf123 for the article. I wasn't paying too much attention throughout spoiler season and completely missed Selfless Spirit was Stormfront Pegasus with upside. I know some powered cubes play Pegasus but it hasnt been a consideration for me until now with Selfless Spirit.

I thought Collective Brutality would make an appearance on your list towards the bottom 5. I thought Reanimator would want this card for the cheap 2 in 1 discard and removal disruption. Is it just simply not impactful enough? Otherwise great article as always.

Collective Brutality is a card I really like, but the discard option and removal option are both a little meager. A couple years ago I didn't have as many good discard outlets and this would have been a lock, but in the testing I did actually getting two useful effects out of it and have this discard matter is pretty rare. That said I can see some people who have dropped all the go for the throat options and smallpox. I am a little tight there. For me it was ~10-15 best card in the set for my cube. If it said nonland, or noncreature nonland, I would have been sold.

Nice write-up as always!

My includes go reasonably deep in this set, since I'm finding room to test out Deep Fiend. Other than that, I'm trying out everything else in your top 11 or 12, minus Gisela (don't feel the need for it), Noose Contrictor (kinda meh now I have so many outlets) and possibly Emrakul (could see cutting the less versatile Ugin for it, if it gets really rave reviews). I also intend to give Cryptbreaker a look at. I like the idea of a more utility-oriented black one drop. I am extremely excited to run Spell Queller, in particular. That card is so very pushed and does exactly what my U/W decks want to be doing.

Lastly, I'm sad not to have space for Docent of Perfection. It's so very cool, but I fear the payoff is not quite there (on average) for the investment.

Given that I never put new set wants on my list when I should, this will be very helpful in reminding me what I actually want from the set! Bookmarked!

Also, great write ups. I, too, would have rated prowler higher, but I get that some people just don't like/don't run green aggro cards. I think I'm lower on wild mongrel than you (but still run it - and will be swapping this in for it). Finally, I think infiltrator is probably going to be worse than defiance, just because defiance seems like it will be such a workhorse and while I'm really high on infiltrator I think it will whiff some number of games. Other than that, I think we basically agree on everything.

Thanks for the comments, folks!

@DRL: Defiance is fine in a deck that needs the discard outlet, but at face value it was just not quite pushed enough to go into other decks. I think a noncreature, nonland clause on the discard would've gone a long way, and changing the removal part to a +3/-3 would've made it both stronger and more interesting.

@Goodking: I'll give nothing but rave reviews of the new Emrakul. But even with that being said, I don't think it quite makes it in 360.

@asmallcat: Good to see we agree!

Quote from wtwlf123 »

I could see maybe passing on Cruise if you're draw suite is otherwise deep, but Rogue has been a great card. Cuts from blue are excruciating at that size though ...it's a tough call. Maybe over Willbender if you're willing to scale down the Morph package at all?

Willbender is being cut for Wharf Infiltrator and I'm cutting Academy Ruins for Imprison in the Moon. After that, the cuts are brutal. I guess I could cut Stratus Dancer for Rogue, but I really like to keep up the number of counters. Hope this isn't too off topic for this thread.

Cheers,
rant

Ya, blue cuts are really hard...

Quote from CuberAng »

Man, I would pay for this preview
I agree that this set is just great for the cube: so many nice and solid playables to choose from!
After I finished the reading I overall agree with your rankings, with these exceptions:
1) Is Collective Defiance so good? I want to try it but I have no clue about the cut..
2) The same is for Elder Deep-Fiend: is it good outside of tempo decks?
Recently I changed my mind on Eldritch Evolution because we run Pod and this cards seems very interesting.

Collective Defiance is that good so far (and my group enjoys it).
I would cut one of Searing Spear clones or Arc Lightnig/Flames of the Firebrand. Defiance is just more interesting at the very least. If not those I would consider Devastation (but that is probably a pet card) and you are also not running Fiery Confluence which seems really nice in your set up.

I think Collective Defiance is pretty strong. Not broken, but a really solid spell.

Elder Deep-Fiend cares more about the creature count than the shell, so even in blue midrange decks it should be okay.

Can you only choose the extra modes on defiance once or as many times as you want?

e: Double-post.

Quote from 7Dahl7 »

Can you only choose the extra modes on defiance once or as many times as you want?

Each mode can only be selected once.

I like Eldritch Evolution more (though not sure what I'd cut for it myself) and surprised Tamiyo didn't make the list. Either way, nice write up bro and quite possibly my favorite one of yours yet!

Quote from Goodking »

(could see cutting the less versatile Ugin for it, if it gets really rave reviews)

Do not, I repeat, do not cut Ugin

Thanks man! Ya, Tamiyo is a solid option for a true Bant gold card (though I probably still prefer Empyrial Archangel just for the Natural Order shenanigans).

Eldritch Evolution is certainly a solid spell on its own, but I think it really starts to shine in cubes that can use it as a toolbox spell to assemble creature-based combos.

Archangel is also a stellar reanimation target as it's hard to get rid of and absolutely shuts down some boards.

Oh for sure. And in super-ramp decks too. I mean, it's not a good thing to see your opponent resolve.