This is my 21st installment of the "top 20" set preview articles! Just like the previous reviews, it will be in a spoiled top X countdown format, with each section having an image, a brief summary/description, and my verdict on what cubes I think it could potentially see some play in. I got a lot of positive feedback on the format from the last few articles, so I’m going to keep the “what I like” and “what I don’t like” sections.
Keep in mind (just like the others) that this is a set preview. Similar to draft predictions in professional sports, this list is an educated guess at best. Some cards I value highly in here may turn out to not last long in the cube. Other cards that are lower down on the list (or even missed entirely!) could (well, very likely may) turn out to be great cards. Even Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round! Again, this is not intended to be gospel, set in stone or written as a review for posterity. This is simply written to be an enjoyable guess at cards I like for cubes, and hopefully it'll allow some cube managers to evaluate cards they may have otherwise overlooked and/or put some cards in perspective that may've been overhyped. Nothing more.
Amnkhet is a set both oozing with flavor and full of good cube cards. This easily has the most potential cube inclusion of any set I’ve seen since the original Zendikar set. Perhaps more. When I was reviewing the spoiler and the official card image gallery, I counted at least 40 cards worthy of discussing. So I guarantee that there are cards not on this list that cube managers will find interesting for their own lists, regardless of size. Amonkhet explores a lot of interesting design spaces too, so cubes with some unique archetypes will find cards from this set to include. Cutting the discussion down to 20 was painful. I’ll go over my 20 favorites with you here.
What I Like: The flexibility on this card is its biggest selling point. Like most scaleable effects, you will be able to find cards at each CMC up the curve that are more cost-effective, but being able to drop into multiple spots in the curve is big game. At the lower converted mana costs, it’s pretty much dedicated discard enabling. You can pay 2 mana to ditch a fatty and set up for T3 reanimation. Not ideal, but if the line of play might win you the game, the option is there. If you don’t have a reanimation spell yet, for 3 mana you can give the Griselbrand in your hand Cycling 0. Still card disadvantage, but again, the option is there. For 4 mana, the card isn’t great, but it can do a decent job of digging to find a crucial 5th land if it’s something you need to have. It’s pure card selection at that cost, but it can still be useful in certain windows. 5+ mana is where it really starts to pull its weight. While it loses the raw draw power of something like Jace's Ingenuity at 5 or Opportunity at 6, it can still pitch a graveyard-centric card if needed, and it provides you with the flexibility of it imitating either spell. And anything beyond 6 is just gravy. Starting with draw 5 pitch 1; it’s a hell of a card advantage spell. The card it reminds me of most is Stroke of Genius, and I think this card is just better. Outside of decks using High Tide/Heartbeat of Spring/Palinchron infinite mana combos (where Stroke can be a win condition) seeing an extra card is just better at every place in the curve. And at 5+ mana, the 2U vs UU cost won’t matter a ton for most decks.
What I Don't Like: Card draw in the cube is loaded with the most efficient card advantage spells ever printed. And while this spell is flexible, you’re going to get a better rate of return (mana wise) with all the existing card selection, filtering and draw spells blue has to offer. This means that you’ll be paying a hefty price for Pull’s flexibility when you cut a currently cubeable card draw spell for it.
Verdict: If you are currently running a big-mana draw-exclusive effect in blue (like the aforementioned Opportunity/Ingenuity/Stroke/Etc) I think this is a pretty clean replacement for them. It’s just a really flexible card. I tried to find a cut I liked to shoehorn this into my cube list and just couldn’t find one I liked. But if my cube was any bigger, I’d be giving this some extended playtime. I think this is a clear add at 630+, and is probably testable in some smaller cubes depending on how important the discard part of the effect might be for your playgroup.
What I Like: 4 mana for a 4/4 flying creature isn’t a bad rate. It survives Bolts, can block most early creatures applying pressure, and presents a reasonable clock. But the main feature here is the 1-mana cycling effect. In the early game, you can ditch this when looking for a critical land drop. If you get overloaded with better 4cc plays, you can look for other action. If the opponent presents a situation where resolving a Curator isn’t going to help, you can replace it with something else on the cheap. And while a 4/4 flying isn’t a great reanimation target, you still have the option of putting this in your yard to bring back with a value Recurring Nightmare, or to increase the impact of your Living Death. But wait, there’s more! Curator also has a line of text that adds Scry 1 to all of your other discard effects. So your Enclave Cryptologist, Looter il-Kor, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Waterfront Bouncer, etc all get to scry in addition to providing their other effects. That’s far from being just flavor text on a card that’s already solid in its own right.
What I Don't Like: The competition at the 4cc creature slot in blue is top heavy (though it wanes rather quickly past the top 4 or so) in terms of card quality. Despite the utility and flexibility of Curator, it can be hard to find a cut, especially if you support some of the archetypes that blue’s fringe 4cc creatures enable.
Verdict: Once you have more than 4 or so blue 4cc creatures in the cube, this competes strongly in the #5 slot. So unless you need that 5th blue 4-drop to support a specific deck, Curator is a strong and flexible option as a generic 4cc creature. My next blue 4-drop would be this guy if I went up in size, so I think 630+ card cubes can find room for this. Smaller, perhaps, if one of the existing 4cc creatures doesn’t suit the playstyles of your particular playgroup.
What I Like: There aren’t any good Relentless Assault variants for our format ...until now. Attaching this kind of effect to a 4-power 3-drop means a couple things. First, this becomes a must-kill/must-block creature, or the effect will provide a ton of damage. If you can clear a path with a burn spell and you have this guy out with a few other attackers, the game might end on the spot. But a 4/1 body is relatively easy to deal with in combat. If they do have a blocker for this, it’s basically a Relentless Assault with suspend 1 for 3 mana that kills off a blocker (which makes the second attack with the rest of your team all the more potent). If you can give the Celebrant haste somehow, it can mitigate a lot of the combat woes since it won’t be telegraphed at all. Not bad. But in addition to that line of play, Celebrant can also be a combo enabler with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and friends (as was pointed out by steve_ice). With a free attack, this wins the game on the spot as yet another combo piece.
What I Don't Like: If your cube is likely to involve a lot of combat, it can be tricky to find the right window to try and break it (since the opponent can see the writing on the wall and play accordingly). Unless you’re playing lots of haste enablers or this is being used as part of a combo, there are safer 3cc beaters that are more resilient to a congested board.
Verdict: A hard-hitting splashable 3-drop, with an absurd ceiling. I couldn’t line up a cut that I liked in my own cube since I don’t fully support the combo, so it just misses for me. I’d play it at 630+ even at face value, and it certainly makes the cut at just about any size if your group likes to Kiki people out.
What I Like: 1-mana cycling is just good, so it’s easy to find a way to exchange this card for something more impactful once the game reaches a point where on-curve development isn’t likely to continue. But despite only forcing a 1-mana tax, it can counter any spell that is played on-curve, and its face-value effect is useful for a long while in a lot of matchups. Playing cards like Daze and even Complicate have shown that Force Spike-style disruption can hold its value into the later stages of the game. It’s nice to be able to cycle this kind of effect away if the opponent gets nervous about the spell and delays their on-curve development by a mana.
What I Don't Like: Unlike Daze and Force Spike, having to hold up 2 mana for this counter has a bigger impact on potential early development. And unlike the other pay-1 counters, your opponent playing around this card doesn’t hurt them as badly since they’re keeping 1 mana open and you’re needing to hold 2. Lastly, it doesn’t carry value as far into the later stages of the game as the cube’s other 2cc counterspells do.
Verdict: Cycling 1 is good, and Force Spike effects are deceptively powerful. I couldn’t immediately find the space for this card at 540, but it’s likely good enough to see play if I forced it into the list somehow. I’d snap this into the list at 630+, and there’s a good chance that it’s supposed to make it into smaller cubes. I’ll continue to test this card at varying intervals throughout future updates, and keep a close eye on cards for potential cuts.
What I Like: Cycling is a good ability to have on effects that can be situational blanks. While unlikely not to have a viable target, those situations can arise and this card is never dead. As LucidVision aptly pointed out, costing a 3rd mana means more in powered cubes where answering a Mox or Sol Ring as early as possible is critical. But in unpowered cubes where both the mana rocks and the priority targets are a little more expensive, this spell is likely an ideal answer. In comparison to Disenchant, exiling isn’t irrelevant either. It stops Wurmcoil and Hangarback from making bodies, and it stops Welder/Ruins/Daretti/Feldon shenanigans too. Overall, this is a flexible and useful spell that will almost always have a target, and it can be cycled away in the limited windows where it doesn’t.
What I Don't Like: As I mentioned above, in powered cubes with cheap must-answer targets, the 3cc can be a bit of a liability. Not a deal-breaker, but certainly not irrelevant either.
Verdict: Situational removal gains so much value by being able to cycle them away in situations where they’re blanked. I think the powered vs unpowered caveat will be the biggest point of contention with this card, and it really varies the sizes it might show up in. While this is likely a 540/630+ spell in powered cubes, it might be the best true Disenchant in unpowered lists, making this likely 360 playable for unpowered cubes. Don’t sleep on this card; it’ll be a silent workhorse in lists that elect to include it.
What I Like: The 5cc creature slot in blue is pretty shallow, all things considered. Beyond Mulldrifter and Meloku the Clouded Mirror (and Morphling for crotchety old-school Magic players like myself) there aren’t a ton of good options. Enter Glyph Keeper. This creature is really hard to kill. It takes a pair of removal spells to break through its glass-spun protection ...and for what? Just to have this get Embalmed back for more? 5 power and flying presents a fast clock, and it’s just a bear to deal with.
What I Don't Like: If the 5cc creature options in blue were as rich and deep as they are in white and red, Keeper might not find many cube homes. It won’t be an uncuttable creature by any measure, but it’ll fill a gap in a relatively soft spot in blue’s creature curve.
Verdict: Soft competition will open up avenues for this to resolve to its fair share of cube boards. Not to take anything away from the Keeper itself, because it’s certainly good, but its main role will be filling a curve gap. Nevertheless, this thing will tally up kills in blue midrange decks and tapout control shells, because it presents a fast clock and it’s really hard to stop it from killing you. I would need this for my curve at 630, and it will see play in smaller cubes that feel like blue’s other 5cc creature options haven’t aged like wine.
What I Like: Look, the 5cc creature section is stacked, and it takes a powerful printing to make cube managers inspect the section closely for replacements. Oblivion Ring effects are good in this format because the removal is so flexible and there always seems to be a prime target for the effect. For an additional 2 mana, you get a 3/4 flying creature strapped to it. Which means, after removing their most potent threat, you’re extremely likely to have a board advantage after AoS resolves. That would be near good enough at face value, but that would be ignoring Angel’s most powerful aspect—the Embalm. In addition to the great value you’re already getting from this Angel, you get to throw some card advantage into the mix too? It plays great from the yard after eating a premium removal spell, and keep their best non-land permanent from impacting the game almost indefinitely.
What I Don't Like: Man, the competition is fierce. Reveillark is a fantastic build-around card that can be one of the best cards in the shells it shines in. Angel of Invention is an important card for token/anthem strategies, in addition to contributing to the 2-power matters ETB abuse shells. Archangel Avacyn is just ...good. So that leaves Angel of Sanctions to compete against the #4+ 5cc white creatures. Including Baneslayer Angel, Cloudgoat Ranger and others; all of which are intrinsically strong cards. I currently have Baneslayer as that #4 card, but that’s largely because my playgroup loves Wildfire decks, and Baneslayer is a potent threat both in and against those strategies. But in most cube configurations, Angel of Sanctions is likely the better card. The Banishing Light effect plus the body will give you board advantage in a similar way to how Baneslayer’s combat prowess does, except you also have the fundamental card advantage built into the Embalm trigger.
Verdict: I should probably be making room for this at 540. But my post-Amnokhet configuration is going to be tight at this section, and some players in my playgroup will only let me pry Baneslayer Angel from their cold, dead hands. I’d snap play this at 630+, and it’s almost assuredly good enough for smaller cubes that aren’t as attached to their current 5-drop suite.
What I Like: There are several aspects of Hazoret that appeal to me, but it’s the specific combination/arrangement of them that makes this ultimately worthwhile. It’s nice to put an indestructible permanent onto the battlefield that will eventually kill the opponent. If nothing else, this can function as a pseudo-Stormbind effect that can turn your draws into guaranteed sources of damage. Aggressive decks do a good job of getting their hand sizes down at a reasonable pace. While it’s true that a conventional curve of 1 spell and 1 land per turn will leave Hazoret a turn short of attacking on curve (thanks to Salmo for confirming these numbers for us) there are lots of ways that aggressive decks can change that curve ratio and make Hazoret live for his haste to be effective. Any card disadvantage spell anywhere along the curve will make him a live haste draw. Any fast mana in your curve will do it too. Any 2-spell turn, or 0-mana spell can also turn him on for on-curve beats. But even if you assume that he won’t be attacking the turn he resolves, it’s a valuable card to have on the table. A 5-power indestructible body is nothing to scoff at, especially in red aggro decks that normally struggle against big defensive midrange bodies. And with an aggro curve, 4+ lands and his activated ability at the ready, he’s really easy to activate on T5+. I’ve played a lot with cards like Blood Scrivener and Asylum Visitor–Cards that showcase how difficult it can be to get completely hellbent sometimes. After extensive testing with Hazoret, the difference between 0 cards and 1 card is a lot more than it seems it would be. It’s very easy to get him active. But even in the scenarios where you’re bottlenecked on cards, the combination of his activated ability and his indestructibility will get there. It can also serve as a backup discard outlet for decks playing from the bin. Obviously not fast enough for a dedicated reanimator shell, but he has no problem pitching a huge robot for Daretti/Feldon to bring back, or setting up a scary Living Death or something. And the reach (direct damage) can be used to keep opposing planeswalker loyalties under control if they’re otherwise insulated by blockers. It ultimately plays much better in person than it looks on paper.
What I Don't Like: Red’s 4cc creatures are quite competitive. Old school cubers will remember when that wasn’t the case ...but now, finding cuts is hard. Fortunately, there’s a decent amount of redundancy in that department, and I was able to cut a powerful but replaceable card for Hazoret, which I felt was a much more interesting and unique effect. I really expected to get stuck on cards more often than is taking place in practice. But the floor on this card can be pretty low if it gets hit by an Oblivion Ring or something before it ever had an opportunity to interact with the red zone.
Verdict: I originally didn’t think I was going to be able to find a cut I was comfortable with, but after identifying some redundancies, I was able to get this into the cube. And it’s been performing surprisingly well. I’m going to give this some extensive playtime at 540, and I expect it to make the cut at cubes this size. Cuts are probably too hard for it to fit into cubes that are smaller, but if you can, give it a go. Unique and interesting set of abilities, and quite a lot of fun in practice.
What I Like: Anytime you have a 2-power 2-drop that has the ability to generate card advantage, it’s worth looking at closely to examine its playability. Duelist is an interesting combination of build and ability, because the 2/2 for 2 that can be replayed from the graveyard later feels like something a beatdown deck might want. But the ability on it is a defensive one. It took some playtesting to figure out exactly where I wanted to play this card. It’s a fine 22-23 playable in an aggressive shell, just to have a random on-curve beater that can bring itself back from the dead post wrath, but it didn’t shine there. The real value was in its defensive capabilities. Being able to block two bodies, while very likely trading with at least 1 attacker, is quite the defensive ability. Duelist is good at defending resolved planeswalkers, and can function as both a pseudo Call of the Herd variant while also working a little bit like Moment's Peace. One particular line of play involved me having Duelist out with a Crystal Shard in play, and forcing the opponent to commit a 3rd body to the board before they could start pressuring me. Then I added a Maze of Ith to that board, and they had to add a 4th creature. I then proceeded to play Day of Judgment, and recast the Duelist, which prompted an immediate concession. I was more than a little surprised in testing to see how impactful the double-blocking actually was. Even in aggressive decks, blocking isn’t always irrelevant. It’s not part of the main gameplan, but sometimes you find yourself on your heels, and Duelist’s ability to essentially blank two combat steps from the opponent can actually break the aggro mirror; especially if you have an evasive beater that you can pressure with while the Duelist holds down the fort. Again, never plan A, but it’s nice to have that line of play as an option. Duelist is also a fine card in Orzhov stax decks, since it gives you two creatures to sacrifice, or it can be pitched to a Liliana plus or the like.
What I Don't Like: 2-drops with defensive abilities aren’t on the top of most cube managers want lists, simply because it doesn’t help aggro, where 2-drops are the most needed. If you elect to play Duelist, be wary of what you’re cutting for it, since you may not want to drop an aggressive creature to find room. It’s a much better defensive card, and can create some really awkward combat situations for your opponent, especially if they’re feeling pressured to deal with your planeswalkers and can’t.
Verdict: I was originally really high on this card, and then I cooled down a lot, and then came back up a bit. Ultimately settled somewhere in the middle. I will be giving his card some extensive playtest time in my 540 cube, but I’m not sure if it would make the cut if my cube was smaller.
What I Like: This is part Monastery Swiftspear, and part utility creature. In a deck featuring a lot of ways to trigger the prowess, this can do a reasonable job of imitating a 2-power 1-drop. Additionally, the ability is pretty relevant in what is traditionally red aggro’s worst matchup, midrange. On Twitter, Brian Miller pointed out how impactful this ability can be with instant-speed burn, turning all your burn spells into combat tricks. Let’s look at a normal nightmare scenario for red aggro. Opponent resolves a Baneslayer Angel and passes. Unless you have two burn spells, you might as well pack it in. Mage shores up a big weakness here ...in fact, with a single burn spell, Mage can attack into the Baneslayer, kill it in combat and survive (Angel blocks, Bolt shrinks it to a 2/2, Mage becomes a 2/3). In addition to the combat value it provides, being able to manage the size of the opponents creatures is just useful. It allows me to drag down an opponent’s giant monster over multiple turns (even if I don’t have the second burn effect right away) and keeps the board manageable. It also combines really well with any repeatable damage effect, allowing cards like Grim Lavamancer and Cursed Scroll to kill/cripple bigger threats than they’re normally tasked to handle. And this creature is loads of fun with Garruk Relentless, allowing you to machine gun down 3/3 creatures (and smaller) with impunity. Overall it’s a really unique and interesting ability.
What I Don't Like: There are lots of situations where the -1/-1 counter play is just insignificant. And a 1/2 prowess without haste is pretty darn meh.
Verdict: This is not the next Goblin Guide. Hell, I don’t even think this competes with red’s tier-2 aggro 1-drops particularly well. But I do think this floats to the top of the tier-3 aggro beaters, and could easily replace creatures like Reckless Waif, Village Messenger and/or Goblin Glory-Chaser. It will be at or near the bottom of my 1cc red creature section at 540, but I do think it’s currently playable at this size. An easy slam-include into anything 630 or bigger. If you play a combat-centric cube that perhaps supports the spells matters deck, this may even find its way into smaller cube lists too.
What I Like: First and foremost, I need to give a shout-out to Gabrosin for going to bat for Commit. I liked the effect, and it was going to be in my top 20 list, but with the closer analysis provided, I really think this card has a chance to be great. The three cards in the cube most comparable to Commit are Unexpectedly Absent, Venser, Shaper Savant and Into the Roil. That’s pretty good company to be in. If nothing else, Commit can be used as a 1WW Unexpectedly Absent for 3U. It gives you the ability to remove dangerous and problematic permanents that resolved around or underneath your countermagic, and not only provides immediate relief from the effect, but buys time and tempo before you see it again. Venser maintains its card parity by providing a body; Into the Roil, by drawing a card. Commit does it by denying the opponent a draw. Which has multiple advantages, particularly when paired with this kind of effect. As Memory Lapse has shown, the ability to prevent the opponent from being able to re-cast the effect is important. Commit does that to whatever it “bounces” or counters. And it also buries it an additional card deep, so that you get an additional time buffer to figure out how to deal with the card. It’s a splashable, fixed-value Unexpectedly Absent. Commit is to a kicked Into the Roil what Memory Lapse is to Remand. It can impact the game from a tempo standpoint in a similar way to Venser, Shaper Savant. That’s a very decent baseline for the card to have, given that it also has a splashable casting cost. Oh, and it has a 6-mana flashback Timetwister stapled to it too... o.0
What I Don't Like: Competition at the 4cc blue spell section is pretty stacked. Small cubes will have a hard time finding an appropriate cut.
Verdict: I was originally pretty luke-warm on Commit, but Gabrosin’s sales pitch was on point. I started exploring comparable effects, and realized that this card has a lot going for it. And it secretly shoehorns in an extra draw-7 effect (which is not just flavor text; it’s a significant added bonus). I was able to find room at 540, which is hard to do, because the threshold for blue spells is steep. Not sure about 450 or smaller, but this is a pretty darn good card.
What I Like: Drifting Meadow has come a long way. Having cycling on lands is such a good ability, because at any time you don’t need the resources, you can cash it in to look for action. Topdeck one of these on T9 when it’s gas or bust? No problem. And the opportunity cost is now lower than ever to play with cycling lands ...because these fix your mana too! But there’s so much more to these lands. Interaction is key. First, they’re true duals, meaning they can be targeted by the fetchland cycle. This in itself opens up a lot of lines of play and increases their value by a lot. But in addition to that, there are several cards in the cube that care about land types. Your Vedalken Shackles can steal bigger creatures. Your Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary can tap for more mana. You can cast Snuff Out for free after a T1 ETBT nonbasic. It works with all of Koth of the Hammer’s abilities. And so on. In addition to the interaction that is introduced with the land types being a thing, bounce effects become late-game draw effects. As steve_man (our resident spoiler season [SCD] creation guru) pointed out, Kor Skyfisher can bounce a cycling land to your hand and allow you to subsequently cycle it away for a fresh card. This also works with Meloku the Clouded Mirror. Bounce effects that can target your cycling lands now essentially produce a Clue for you. Sometimes, cards can get value from multiple points of synergy; Daze, for example, can be cast for free off the land being an Island, but also returns it to your hand so you can cycle it away! Even without those kinds of interactions, the cycling itself has synergy with different cards in the cube. Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam both have tremendous synergy with cycling lands. Your Regrowth effects can turn into taxed cantrips. There are just a ton of small things these lands can do that really help boost their value, in addition to being mana-fixing lands that can be cycled away when you don’t need them (which would likely be good enough on its own).
What I Don't Like: They always enter the battlefield tapped. This is not an insignificant drawback. Most of the time, you’ll be able to find a place to comfortably insert them into your curve, but there will be occasions where the tempo setback is significant. Arguably hurts aggressive decks more since a tempo setback is more likely to be costly, but in practice I’ve found them to be perfectly playable in aggro decks; cycling lands out of my hand in search of more gas is not irrelevant.
Verdict: These lands are quite good, but are going to be largely barred from inclusion into small cubes because of the competition. Dual/Fetch/Shock/Manland still reign supreme in this format, so these are going to be #5 lands at best by default. This cycle is finally good enough for me to be willing to run a split cycle, and I’ll be playing these as my 5th allied guild lands at 540.
What I Like: Historically 3/1 creatures for 2 mana haven’t been great in cube because of their propensity to trade away in combat. The exert ability on Initiate allows you to attack as a 4/4; tangling profitably with almost anything that you could reasonably expect to obstruct its path in the early/mid-game. That wouldn’t in and of itself be a good enough reason to run it over a generic 2-drop with evasion, but there’s more. When the path is clear, it can just crash in for 3, which outpaces the evasive creatures for damage. And then there’s the lifelink. The life-gain ability won’t always be relevant in every matchup, but in the windows where it matters, this creature can create some pretty significant life swings. In aggro mirrors for example, the opponent is doomed to have bad things happen. Either allow an 8-point life swing to occur, or chump it to preserve life, which kills off a blocker and still gains 4 life. That can be near impossible to race, and unlike a smaller body with lifelink, it’s impossible to trade it off the board in combat, and even one clean attack before it dies to removal can create a real uphill climb for the opponent. Also, if you can find ways to untap this (Flickerwisp sounds fun) it can exert on back to back turns.
What I Don't Like: It still dies to toughness-based removal pretty easily, and in the matchups where the opponent has lots of cheap blockers AND the lifelink is irrelevant, it would’ve been better off as a random evasive 2-drop.
Verdict: I started off feeling really good about this creature, but I’ve cooled a little. I think this is good enough for my 540 list, but I don’t know if it would survive a round of cuts down to 450. But it can hit hard, and if aggro mirrors are regular for your playgroup this creature might be a real monster. For cubes really looking for a 2-drop to dominate aggro matchups without letting off the gas, this could easily be playable at 450, or even smaller.
What I Like: Not a ton to say here. If you’ve played Ruinous Path in cube, you know how this’ll perform. I think it’s better than RP, because it doesn’t hemorrhage value with regularity. Every time I cast RP without Awaken, I was losing potential value. And 7-8 mana at once is a lot. With Never, I will always be able to cast this under any circumstance and still have access to the value side at a later point. And while that value doesn’t have a high a ceiling as RP does, always being an option is far more important. And the ability is solid too. Maindeckable graveyard hate that can randomly snipe an important graveyard card is always welcome; works well pre-Living Death or pre-Exhume too. Plus, it makes a 2/2 zombie body, which is fine in terms of tacked-on card advantage is concerned, and it works with Gravecrawler and Sarcomancy.
What I Don't Like: I wish the Return mode was an instant. But since it’s basically “free” value, I’m not going to whine too much.
Verdict: Ruinous Path was a solid card, largely because 3 mana kill any creature or ‘walker is a fine baseline for a card. I think Never is better, and so it’s an easy inclusion for me. Probably good enough for 450 cubes, easy include for me at 540+.
What I Like: The {+1} effect does a solid job of defending you and defending Gideon. Similar to an effect like Prison Term, it can continually scale up to start isolating whatever your opponent’s current biggest threat is. It also stops manlands from dealing damage, which is an important weakness for control to shore up. Even if you’re aggressive, the plus ability is valuable because it immediately starts the damage prevention—meaning that your smaller creatures can attack into bigger blockers. The middle {0} ability is strong too. Unlike other defensive 3cc utility cards, Gideon can actually turn into a significant threat and start crashing in for 4 once the coast is clear. Plays great with wraths; use the plus ability to force the opponent to overextend, then wrath the board away and start using the zero ability as a win condition. Gideon can also make an emblem that gives you Platinum Angel protection while you control a Gideon. That ability is being both overrated and misunderstood by the cube community at large. It’s by far the least significant ability he has, and it’s only going to be useful in a handful of windows. Since the opponent can just attack and kill Gideon and then kill you, his {+1} ability will usually do a better job of protecting you (and Gideon) from losing life. The value of the emblem comes from forcing the opponent’s hand. It won’t be good right before an otherwise lethal alpha strike other that serving as a distraction (in which case the plus ability might be better anyways). When the emblem becomes potent is when it exists AND you can use the plus ability to protect Gideon in the same round of turns. That means you need to carve out a spot somewhere in the curve to create the emblem when you can protect yourself and Gideon adequately, where attacking with Gideon isn’t the right line. Those windows are going to be tough to find. But even if you’re using Gideon to insulate an opponent’s threat and bash with an indestructible 4/4, that’ll be good enough.
What I Don't Like: You need to be prepared to use Gideon defensively. It can’t freely be thrown into a deck with the expectation of it being an indestructible 4/4 with upside (like I’ve heard it be evaluated elsewhere) because he’s vulnerable to dying on the crackback. It’ll be a defensive position-leveraging card first, and a creature second (and an annoying distraction a distant third). Also, the 1WW cost can limit the decks that can resolve this on-curve with consistency.
Verdict: I don’t want to undersell Gideon, because he’s a great card. But I do feel like he’s being overrated by the Magic community in general. I was able to find room for him at 540. It’s probably good enough for 450 even, since there aren’t a ton of great 3cc noncreature cards beyond the top 3-4. But it’ll very likely be the worst white planeswalker in most cubes that do run him, so space concerns and planeswalker saturation concerns will limit him from going into small lists.
What I Like: I was surprised with the saturation of permanents in the cube that can be punished by Harsh Mentor. Approximately 20% of my cube consists of artifacts, creatures and lands that have non-mana activated abilities! What this equates to (since it hits a variety of lands) is right around 5-6 cards per deck that take damage off Mentor. The opponent will probably draw 2-3 cards per game that they can take damage from, which is a pretty surprising number of cards, considering the damage is completely asymmetrical and his cost is splashable. And some cards, like Enclave Cryptologist, Arbor Elf and Sensei's Divining Top just get hosed entirely out of usability by Mentor. As allred123 aptly pointed out, similar to effects like Thalia’s, it may be hard to see the impact that Mentor is having on the game unless you’re on the receiving end of it. If you find yourself wondering how every time your opponent has a Mentor out you seem to have equipment and Scroll Racks and fetches that are getting punished, and every time you play it you just get a Grizzly Bears ...you’re not. You just can’t see the impact it’s having all the time. This will lead to very polarized results being posted from this card, since it can be hard to quantify its impact. But any 2-power 2-drop that can either blank my opponent’s cards or force 4-6 extra direct damage per game (or some combination of the two) is just fine for my red decks.
What I Don't Like: This creature is anemic in combat. As a vanilla 2/2, it trades with just about everything. It’ll likely be better in burn-centric aggro decks (with Abbot, Swiftspear, Pyromancer, etc) where it will be backed up with a ton of removal to keep the path clear than it will be in traditional Zoo-style aggro decks with lots of creatures and combat. Unless you can pair him with good equipment or have him pilot a Copter or drive a Car.
Verdict: It’ll take some faith and some time to properly experience Harsh Mentor. Since the impact will often be hard to see, some players will snap cut this after a few drafts; probably with an incomplete evaluation process taking place. I think this is easily good enough for 450 cubes, perhaps smaller depending on your particular saturation of cards that are impacted by it.
What I Like: While Reclamation Sage is better because of the enchantment destruction, this is in two ways better than the Orangutan and Viridian Shaman are. First, the ability is a may, which is occasionally relevant if you just need to drop any random body that can carry a Sword for you and the opponent has no targets. Second, it forces all the opponent’s artifacts to enter play tapped. This is actually quite impactful. From preventing artifact creatures from being immediately available as blockers (including Thopters and Servos) to preventing mana rocks from being able to be tapped for mana immediately, this has a lot of uses.
What I Don't Like: I guess it’s kinda sad knowing that Uktabi Orangutan, a card with a rich and significant Magic history, has likely permanently had the door shut on its time in our fine format.
Verdict: If you were playing either Orangutan or Shaman before, clearly this just replaces it. If you weren’t playing one of those before, I think Manglehorn is better enough than they were to be worth playing. This becomes an instant-include for me at 540, and I’d play it at 450 too. Perhaps even 360 if the cube is powered.
What I Like: First off, black’s 5cc cards are historically shallow on both sides of the spectrum. Very few decent creatures, and even fewer playable spells. Not only is Liliana actually good, but she kinda serves both roles. She has a big butt. I mean, costing 5 mana and immediately being able to tick to 6 loyalty (while protecting herself) is impressive. The {+1} ability not only produces a 2/2 creature, but it also spills some cards into your ‘yard to synergize with her other abilities (and enable other shenanigans). That ability alone is great. 4cc Elspeth produces a 1/1, 6cc Elspeth produces 3 power ...2 power being produced off a plus ability for 5cc seems like we may have precedent for something powerful here. Her {-3} ability is sweet. It’s slow for a dedicated reanimation effect, but it’s not hard to find either a big monster or a good utility target in the ‘yard to bring back for value. And she has an attainable ultimate that will sweep away all the creatures except your zombies (which she can make in multiple ways). Black has wanted a good 5cc card. Black has been in the need for a good 4-6cc planeswalker. Her effect plays well in lots of different black strategies, and I like the design and how it interacts with black’s other cards.
What I Don't Like: She loses so much loyalty on the reanimation effect that it seems unlikely to be able to bring a creature back from the dead (turning it into a zombie) and also being able to reach her ultimate in the same game. It seems like it would be a fun and synergistic way to explore her various functions, but looks too hard to pull off.
Verdict: I think the slot is vacant enough that this is a card that should be squeezed into a 450 cubes for sure. It might be good enough for 360 cubes as well. She has a nice combination of abilities that work well with one another, and as a creature engine, the power/loyalty/cost ratios look like they line up relatively well with known cube commodities. Happy to have her around.
What I Like: I think this is a better Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in a guild with lower quality cards available. Which is a recipe for a new cube staple. I am going to try my very best with a giant wall of text to explain why:
Why Ashiok as a comparison? They serve a similar role, and shine in similar matchups. Except I think that Nissa is a good deal better than Ashiok in almost every respect. First, their roles. Both planeswalkers want to resolve early in matchups that avoid early pressure. They want to use their {+2} abilities to pull out of range, and use their middle abilities to create a board presence that circumvents intervention from countermagic. They have ultimates that are good against control decks, and they’re attainable. Now, Nissa is not strictly better, and I’m not trying to claim that. Ashiok resolves with more loyalty if played at 3 mana. In matchups that are particularly slow and ponderous, the mill 3 can actually serve as a backdoor win condition. And Dimir is a guild that has better removal for protecting the ‘walker. But I think the advantages begin and end with those points. So, let me delve into the specific abilities.
The {+2} ability of Scry 2 is significantly better in pretty much every instance where the game doesn’t come down to a player decking. Which, is probably 19 games out of 20. Being able to control the quality of your draws with that kind of precision and depth will be so much more impactful than the mill ability. Particularly in the Simic color combination, where you can combine the Scry effect (and the middle ability, for that matter) with Sylvan Library, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Brainstorm, etc. You get so much card quality filtering that you will pretty much guarantee to draw better than the opponent as the game progresses.
Now, I think Nissa’s middle ability is leagues better. First, since you are in control of the composition of the deck she’s targeting, the ability will be much more consistent. You’ll almost always be hitting cards, you’ll be finding targets with regularity that are not dependent on matchup to determine their quantity or quality, and you’ll be finding targets you know will mesh with the rest of your deck construction. Both ‘walkers are ideal midrange tools to battle against control decks, and in the right decks, the quantity and quality of targets will be perfect in every matchup. While both cards are limited to playing threats with a CMC ≤ their loyalty, Nissa’s ability doesn’t require you to remove loyalty to put a threat to the board. Words can’t express how important of a difference that is, since you can defend Nissa with the newly resolved creature and never have to lose any loyalty to do so. Lastly, Nissa’s middle ability can hit lands! You can use her to ramp you, fix your mana, play multiple lands a turn ...it just increases the versatility of what the card can do for you tenfold. Her middle ability is better in nearly every conceivable way, despite intending to function similarly.
Now, onto the ultimates. Both ultimates are strong, but Nissa’s is better for several reasons. First, it attacks the opponent from the same axis as the rest of your deck (and the rest of Nissa’s abilities). You’re killing the opponent through the red zone, so randomly adding 10 power worth of flying damage will win games on the spot a lot of the time. Second, since her middle ability doesn’t remove loyalty, you don’t ever interrupt her path towards reaching her ultimate. This will often mean that despite sometimes resolving with less loyalty, her loyalty values will be higher in most board states where the middle ability has been activated at least once, and using her middle ability won’t prohibit the eventual use of her ultimate. Third, she has an XCC casting cost. When topdecked in the later stages of the game, she’ll be much closer to an ultimate than Ashiok will because she’ll simply have more loyalty. And lets not overlook the fact that Nissa can be played when you’re flooded out. 8 mana is not an unobtainable value for green cube midrange decks by any measure. This will often be able to function as a 10-damage Simic fireball to the face ...that will occasionally leave a planeswalker behind!
That explains why I think the individual ability comparisons favor Nissa in a head-to-head comparison in situations where they both shine. But what about situations where neither is optimal? Neither ‘walker wants to resolve on boards where they’re going to be under any kind of immediate pressure. So aggro and explosive midrange matchups aren’t ideal for either of them. But I’d much rather have Nissa in my deck in the face of adversity, and I’ll try and explain why. First, the plus ability actually does something even if she’s under pressure. Milling 3-6 cards while Ashiok gets ground to dust in combat gave me a net of ...no real impact when the dust settles. Scry 2, on the other hand, is an effect I would consider to have at least some measurable value even if I don’t net card parity from the spell. Despite resolving with less loyalty when 3 mana is spent, her middle ability isn’t a minus. So IF Ashiok hits a creature with the exile, pressure on its loyalty can prohibit you from being able to get anything from the middle effect. Nissa, on the other hand, so long as she has any loyalty left, can still hit lands for free. Which will result in ramp/fixing and/or card parity when all’s said and done. And hitting an extra land can be big game in your bad boardstates; it can help to recover hemorrhaged tempo and reach the mana necessary to play board-stabilizing cards. And lastly, I can sandbag Nissa until I an resolve her with a loyalty value that can survive the aggression and be able to provide value. Since she can come down later in the curve without losing a loyalty tenure tax, you can wait to resolve her until the board is clearer and she’ll be better equipped to take advantage of it.
So ultimately, she’s everything I ever wanted Ashiok to be, without all the things that I don’t like about her Dimir counterpart.
What I Don't Like: There’s not much to dislike. Having a fixed cost with a better cost/loyalty ratio might be nice in a lot of cases, but it takes away the topdeck potential that makes her so explosive.
Verdict: I think she’s probably the best Simic card. Maybe the second best behind Edric if you support the kinds of decks where his powerlevel can reach blasphemous proportions. This pretty much makes Nissa a shoe-in for nearly every cube.
What I Like: A 2-power 1-drop zombie with no lifeloss would be an easy include on its own. Add in the ability to recur itself, and you have a recipe for one of the best black 1cc creatures ever printed. Even if you don’t support true black aggro, this is a great creature for stax/recursion shells. If you do support black aggro, it just gets better and better. And, it’s a zombie for zombie shenanigans, which are always fun. And not just any zombie, a zombie jackal. Which is just pure badassery.
What I Don't Like: I have a really cool alter on my Vampire Lacerator, and it’ll hurt when I insta-cut it for this 1cc bomb.
Verdict: This is one of the best black 1cc creatures ever, and even if we got 10 more just like it, the value it has in recursive shells is so good that it’s spot is arguably secured indefinitely. I can’t imagine a situation that would arise where I would ever cut this creature.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the article. Please feel free to comment below so we can discuss the fantastic cube set that is Amonkhet! Cheers, and happy cubing.
Pretty surprise Commit//Memory is in fact that high on your list. I have to admit that the draw-7 part of it is damn real. That effect is rare and desirable is most cube lists. Curator of Mystreries, while not being something I would normally cube, is a card that I haven't even notice during my evaluation of the set. Pretty good limited bomb for Amonkhet limited environment! Would love to open one at the prerelease and put together a nice cycling decklist! About Nissa, I also agree that she's the second best simic card ever print.
Also, I was wandering, what have you cut for Hazoret exactly? Just curious.
Excellent write up as usual. The only thing that threw me off was Harsh Mentor being so high; I didn't expect it but then again I'm not exactly surprised either. It's worth noting that the Draw 7 half of Commit//Memory can be cast for free via Torrential Gearhulk.
Black has been in the need for a god 4-6cc planeswalker.
Excellent write up as usual. The only thing that threw me off was Harsh Mentor being so high; I didn't expect it but then again I'm not exactly surprised either. It's worth noting that the Draw 7 half of Commit//Memory can be cast for free via Torrential Gearhulk.
Black has been in the need for a god 4-6cc planeswalker.
Liliana da god.
I also warmed up significantly to this card (enough to test it).
Less that I think the card is very powerful, and more that it fills a gap in what blue lacks. Answers to non-creature permanants.
Works well with the instant speed game. Tolarian Academy/artifact decks can probably make great use of both sides. Green/Blue ramp decks would love having access to both sides vs control... and straight control wouldn't mind "memory" as a safety valve in grindy mirrors if they might deck themselves.
Extremely surprised cast out didn't make the top 20. white 4cc section probably the major reason.. but man, I can't imagine larger lists not playing the card. Flash Oring, as well as an efficient emergency valve when you are mana screwed seems so good to me. I won't be surprised if it turns out to be as good or better than oblivion ring.
The cycle cost sort of muddys it's spot on the curve... Not a true 4cc spell. (IE if you are building a deck that is over-satured with 4CC spells by a small margin, the cycle option smooths out your curve, not true if your deck is all 4cc spells tho =P)...
But yeah, making a top 20 for this set is not an easy feat
Interesting review. I disagree with you more than usual on this one.
It’s 12+ damage even with only one other 2-power creature to attack with.
Unfortunately Combat Celebrant doesn't untap himself. Probably needs reevaluation and likely doesn't make the top 20 cards from this set.
The {+2} ability of Scry 2 is significantly better in pretty much every instance where the game doesn’t come down to a player decking. Which, is probably 19 games out of 20.
Every draft where Ashiok is played I see people getting decked. In the control mirror, it is even a likely outcome if she is played early. I'd say it is closer to 15%-20% of the time (assuming control is 33% of the field).
If she had a fixed cost of 1UG I'd say Ashiok is better. But that scalability is too much to compete with. I think Nissa is very likely the best Simic card. The guild needed this.
That ability alone is great. 4cc Elspeth produces a 1/1, 6cc Elspeth produces 3 power ...2 power being produced off a plus ability for 5cc seems like we may have precedent for something powerful here.
Garruk, Primal Hunter produces larger tokens for the plus ability, in a color that can ramp him quickly (and is still an endangered cube card). No precedent here. I think Liliana is overrated and is just another placeholder at that point of the curve.
This is a good set for cube! I have a 450 but update only 360 cards, mostly.
So I am for putting only #1 and #2 for power level.
I am excited about Nissa's 0 ability. Blue and green are the best top decker colors and it creates a new way for of CA for the colors. Hopefully in the future Red gets more of it too.
I am putting in Manglehorn for utility and the Blue duals because the alphas are too expensive and I dont proxy.
Garruk, Primal Hunter produces larger tokens for the plus ability, in a color that can ramp him quickly (and is still an endangered cube card). No precedent here. I think Liliana is overrated and is just another placeholder at that point of the curve.
Slot competition aside, Garruk's cost is more intensive, starts with 2 less loyalty, his -3 is much easier for the opponent to disrupt, and his ultimate is slower.
@Zetsu_Sensei: You're welcome! My changes aren't 100% finalized yet. When they are, I'll post 'em in my cube thread.
@steve_man: Mentor just looks like an easy card to cube with. Just throw it into the deck and let it do the work for you. There's some merit to that.
@noratora: I fixed the Celebrant text. Thanks for pointing that out.
@LucidVision: I like Cast Out a lot. Ultimately I rated it as an includable card in or around the same size as a lot of other cards, but since the competition is so stiff I wasn't 100% on it going in for sure. Cycling is great, but O-Ring effects are so universally valuable that I thought the cycling meant slightly less on that card than the Force Spike and the Disenchant. It was one of MANY cards that warranted discussion.
@metamind: Ashiok was never close to decking the opponent 20% of the time for us. Even in slow matchups, it was a real rarity. The 5cc Garruk can produce 3/3s, it's true, but it also resolves with a lot less loyalty, the {+} ability doesn't do anything but make the body, he has a harder casting cost, and the competition is stacked. Garruk was good too, if it weren't for the competition being even stronger, he'd still be in there. Having a good card get edged out by great competition isn't precedent for another good card somewhere else to be bad.
@Patousan: I do think these cycling lands are the 5th best cycle, and I'll be running them in my cube, yes.
@JinxedIdol: I can certainly see that. The blue cycling lands are really good.
Thanks for another great set review for cube wtwlf!
One thing, I am curious you did not include is the new clone variant, Vizier of Many Faces. I think I like it more than Curator of Mysteries. Plague Belcher is also a card I'm looking at for my 720 list, but I can see it not making the top 20.
And at last, the blue god is also interesting - at least testable for my list aswell (I will probably cut my devotion package, Thassa and Master of Waves).
I was not sure I would include Trueheart Duelist, but you have convinced me for now .
Both of those creatures were among the many potential talking points for this set. I think Vizier is my favorite 4cc blue clone, but I do happen to like Curator slightly more. And Belcher is a reasonable filler 3cc beatdown creature for large cubes.
I've been a long time fan of your set reviews. So much so that I've removed myself from forum stalker to contributor.
Your review of Nissa has led me to proxy up the card and add it for testing. I'll see if the playgroup ends up liking it. I think my initial reluctance was I saw it more as a large X spell that could randomly pull from my library when initially pumping a large amount of mana into it. Your analysis on it being able to pull defenders has added some food for thought for it at lower mana costs.
Thanks for another great writeup mate, I look out for your post after every set to make sure I didn't miss any sleeper cards. In this case, you pointed out the combo interaction with Combat Celebrant - I didn't even notice this, but as my cube already supports the kiki/twin combo it's nice to have another piece available, especially since it has some crossover value in aggro decks. Will definitely be adding this guy!
Surprised not to see Glorybringer on the list - a reusable kavu strapped to a dragon is pretty gross, no love? I think I'd also like to try Cast Out, but the 4CC slot is so super stacked in white it's really hard to find room. A lot of tough choices in this set, it's pretty great for cube overall!
I also think Regal Caracal is a pretty good choice, I'd say any lists currently running Cloudgoat Ranger should consider swapping it out for this guy. You get a similar effect, but trade in the ability to jump for a lord effect on a surprisingly decent amount of cats that a lot of cubes run at 2-3 CMC. Running this guy out after a Brimaz would be pretty nice!
Thanks for commenting! Yep, all 3 of those cards were on my discussion board, and 1-by-1 got pruned out.
The Dragon is good, but I think it loses out to a lot of red's 5cc competition. A 5th toughness and I would've slammed it into the cube.
Cast Out is an amazing spell. Really. But, it suffers from the fighting the most stacked slot in the cube, and it does lose a little bit of value from its cycling given how universally valuable the effect is (like, I just can't see myself cycling a flash Oblivion Ring nearly as often as a Force Spike or Disenchant, for example).
I like Cloudgoat quite a bit more than the Caracal though, despite Caracal being a good card. The evasion is really important, it produces more total bodies (making it benefit more from Anthem effects and the like), and the ETB trigger part of the card is stronger (for blink/bounce interactions).
I think that the top clones are Metamorph and Phantasmal Image, and it's just hard for a clone to be included over them.
Though out of the 4 mana monoblue clones, hes probably the best just for card advantage
Ya, I pretty much felt the same. There's the splashable one with Flash that's pretty cool too, but it's hard to ignore the card advantage and the ability to get value if it's discarded. Vizier is a good creature to pitch to an early loot activation.
Cheers for the write-up. Any of the cards mentioned could see play in a small list with the right composition. Hell, there are cards (well, one) I'll be including at 405 that weren't even mentioned. This set has real depth and helped a few slots that needed it - white 2's, red 2's, black 5 and Simic. Really good set and I hope we get more Aftermath/Embalm in HoD.
Amen to all that. And there are several great cards I wanted to discuss, but tried to prune it down to 20 as best I could. The list is far from complete, not just because Amonkhet had so many great cards, but because different cards fill different roles and suite different playstyles so uniquely. I would expect most cubes (regardless of size) to find cards that cater to their own playgroup that missed my article altogether. My favorite set in a long time.
This would be an interesting set to look back on in six months.
Thanks for all the work on these. For those of us who get to draft once a month, it's nice to have someone experienced doing extensive testing on these cards. My list of acquisitions and includes always changes a little after reading reviews, with special weight to yours and Usman's.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Really great work as always. I think the final includes a year from now for small cubes won't be many but I do think this is the type of set where a lot of pet cards come from. And I would like to echo that I hope we see Embalm, Cylcing and aftermath again. There are all perfect mechanics for cube.
And for anyone who has a larger cube or doesn't want to put the money up for ABU duals the new lands are amazing. I am pretty disgusted that I can't find room for them. My group just doesn't play enough and isn't big enough to want a larger cube. Plus we are now in need of a new set of fetch lands to make things really sing.
This is my 21st installment of the "top 20" set preview articles! Just like the previous reviews, it will be in a spoiled top X countdown format, with each section having an image, a brief summary/description, and my verdict on what cubes I think it could potentially see some play in. I got a lot of positive feedback on the format from the last few articles, so I’m going to keep the “what I like” and “what I don’t like” sections.
Keep in mind (just like the others) that this is a set preview. Similar to draft predictions in professional sports, this list is an educated guess at best. Some cards I value highly in here may turn out to not last long in the cube. Other cards that are lower down on the list (or even missed entirely!) could (well, very likely may) turn out to be great cards. Even Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round! Again, this is not intended to be gospel, set in stone or written as a review for posterity. This is simply written to be an enjoyable guess at cards I like for cubes, and hopefully it'll allow some cube managers to evaluate cards they may have otherwise overlooked and/or put some cards in perspective that may've been overhyped. Nothing more.
Amnkhet is a set both oozing with flavor and full of good cube cards. This easily has the most potential cube inclusion of any set I’ve seen since the original Zendikar set. Perhaps more. When I was reviewing the spoiler and the official card image gallery, I counted at least 40 cards worthy of discussing. So I guarantee that there are cards not on this list that cube managers will find interesting for their own lists, regardless of size. Amonkhet explores a lot of interesting design spaces too, so cubes with some unique archetypes will find cards from this set to include. Cutting the discussion down to 20 was painful. I’ll go over my 20 favorites with you here.
Without further ado, I can start the countdown!
Pull from Tomorrow
A big mana blue draw spell.
What I Like: The flexibility on this card is its biggest selling point. Like most scaleable effects, you will be able to find cards at each CMC up the curve that are more cost-effective, but being able to drop into multiple spots in the curve is big game. At the lower converted mana costs, it’s pretty much dedicated discard enabling. You can pay 2 mana to ditch a fatty and set up for T3 reanimation. Not ideal, but if the line of play might win you the game, the option is there. If you don’t have a reanimation spell yet, for 3 mana you can give the Griselbrand in your hand Cycling 0. Still card disadvantage, but again, the option is there. For 4 mana, the card isn’t great, but it can do a decent job of digging to find a crucial 5th land if it’s something you need to have. It’s pure card selection at that cost, but it can still be useful in certain windows. 5+ mana is where it really starts to pull its weight. While it loses the raw draw power of something like Jace's Ingenuity at 5 or Opportunity at 6, it can still pitch a graveyard-centric card if needed, and it provides you with the flexibility of it imitating either spell. And anything beyond 6 is just gravy. Starting with draw 5 pitch 1; it’s a hell of a card advantage spell. The card it reminds me of most is Stroke of Genius, and I think this card is just better. Outside of decks using High Tide/Heartbeat of Spring/Palinchron infinite mana combos (where Stroke can be a win condition) seeing an extra card is just better at every place in the curve. And at 5+ mana, the 2U vs UU cost won’t matter a ton for most decks.
What I Don't Like: Card draw in the cube is loaded with the most efficient card advantage spells ever printed. And while this spell is flexible, you’re going to get a better rate of return (mana wise) with all the existing card selection, filtering and draw spells blue has to offer. This means that you’ll be paying a hefty price for Pull’s flexibility when you cut a currently cubeable card draw spell for it.
Verdict: If you are currently running a big-mana draw-exclusive effect in blue (like the aforementioned Opportunity/Ingenuity/Stroke/Etc) I think this is a pretty clean replacement for them. It’s just a really flexible card. I tried to find a cut I liked to shoehorn this into my cube list and just couldn’t find one I liked. But if my cube was any bigger, I’d be giving this some extended playtime. I think this is a clear add at 630+, and is probably testable in some smaller cubes depending on how important the discard part of the effect might be for your playgroup.
Curator of Mysteries
A solid, flexible 4-drop.
What I Like: 4 mana for a 4/4 flying creature isn’t a bad rate. It survives Bolts, can block most early creatures applying pressure, and presents a reasonable clock. But the main feature here is the 1-mana cycling effect. In the early game, you can ditch this when looking for a critical land drop. If you get overloaded with better 4cc plays, you can look for other action. If the opponent presents a situation where resolving a Curator isn’t going to help, you can replace it with something else on the cheap. And while a 4/4 flying isn’t a great reanimation target, you still have the option of putting this in your yard to bring back with a value Recurring Nightmare, or to increase the impact of your Living Death. But wait, there’s more! Curator also has a line of text that adds Scry 1 to all of your other discard effects. So your Enclave Cryptologist, Looter il-Kor, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Waterfront Bouncer, etc all get to scry in addition to providing their other effects. That’s far from being just flavor text on a card that’s already solid in its own right.
What I Don't Like: The competition at the 4cc creature slot in blue is top heavy (though it wanes rather quickly past the top 4 or so) in terms of card quality. Despite the utility and flexibility of Curator, it can be hard to find a cut, especially if you support some of the archetypes that blue’s fringe 4cc creatures enable.
Verdict: Once you have more than 4 or so blue 4cc creatures in the cube, this competes strongly in the #5 slot. So unless you need that 5th blue 4-drop to support a specific deck, Curator is a strong and flexible option as a generic 4cc creature. My next blue 4-drop would be this guy if I went up in size, so I think 630+ card cubes can find room for this. Smaller, perhaps, if one of the existing 4cc creatures doesn’t suit the playstyles of your particular playgroup.
Combat Celebrant
A hard-hitting 3-drop.
What I Like: There aren’t any good Relentless Assault variants for our format ...until now. Attaching this kind of effect to a 4-power 3-drop means a couple things. First, this becomes a must-kill/must-block creature, or the effect will provide a ton of damage. If you can clear a path with a burn spell and you have this guy out with a few other attackers, the game might end on the spot. But a 4/1 body is relatively easy to deal with in combat. If they do have a blocker for this, it’s basically a Relentless Assault with suspend 1 for 3 mana that kills off a blocker (which makes the second attack with the rest of your team all the more potent). If you can give the Celebrant haste somehow, it can mitigate a lot of the combat woes since it won’t be telegraphed at all. Not bad. But in addition to that line of play, Celebrant can also be a combo enabler with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and friends (as was pointed out by steve_ice). With a free attack, this wins the game on the spot as yet another combo piece.
What I Don't Like: If your cube is likely to involve a lot of combat, it can be tricky to find the right window to try and break it (since the opponent can see the writing on the wall and play accordingly). Unless you’re playing lots of haste enablers or this is being used as part of a combo, there are safer 3cc beaters that are more resilient to a congested board.
Verdict: A hard-hitting splashable 3-drop, with an absurd ceiling. I couldn’t line up a cut that I liked in my own cube since I don’t fully support the combo, so it just misses for me. I’d play it at 630+ even at face value, and it certainly makes the cut at just about any size if your group likes to Kiki people out.
Censor
A flexible Force Spike variant.
What I Like: 1-mana cycling is just good, so it’s easy to find a way to exchange this card for something more impactful once the game reaches a point where on-curve development isn’t likely to continue. But despite only forcing a 1-mana tax, it can counter any spell that is played on-curve, and its face-value effect is useful for a long while in a lot of matchups. Playing cards like Daze and even Complicate have shown that Force Spike-style disruption can hold its value into the later stages of the game. It’s nice to be able to cycle this kind of effect away if the opponent gets nervous about the spell and delays their on-curve development by a mana.
What I Don't Like: Unlike Daze and Force Spike, having to hold up 2 mana for this counter has a bigger impact on potential early development. And unlike the other pay-1 counters, your opponent playing around this card doesn’t hurt them as badly since they’re keeping 1 mana open and you’re needing to hold 2. Lastly, it doesn’t carry value as far into the later stages of the game as the cube’s other 2cc counterspells do.
Verdict: Cycling 1 is good, and Force Spike effects are deceptively powerful. I couldn’t immediately find the space for this card at 540, but it’s likely good enough to see play if I forced it into the list somehow. I’d snap this into the list at 630+, and there’s a good chance that it’s supposed to make it into smaller cubes. I’ll continue to test this card at varying intervals throughout future updates, and keep a close eye on cards for potential cuts.
Forsake the Worldly
A cycling, instant-speed Revoke Existence.
What I Like: Cycling is a good ability to have on effects that can be situational blanks. While unlikely not to have a viable target, those situations can arise and this card is never dead. As LucidVision aptly pointed out, costing a 3rd mana means more in powered cubes where answering a Mox or Sol Ring as early as possible is critical. But in unpowered cubes where both the mana rocks and the priority targets are a little more expensive, this spell is likely an ideal answer. In comparison to Disenchant, exiling isn’t irrelevant either. It stops Wurmcoil and Hangarback from making bodies, and it stops Welder/Ruins/Daretti/Feldon shenanigans too. Overall, this is a flexible and useful spell that will almost always have a target, and it can be cycled away in the limited windows where it doesn’t.
What I Don't Like: As I mentioned above, in powered cubes with cheap must-answer targets, the 3cc can be a bit of a liability. Not a deal-breaker, but certainly not irrelevant either.
Verdict: Situational removal gains so much value by being able to cycle them away in situations where they’re blanked. I think the powered vs unpowered caveat will be the biggest point of contention with this card, and it really varies the sizes it might show up in. While this is likely a 540/630+ spell in powered cubes, it might be the best true Disenchant in unpowered lists, making this likely 360 playable for unpowered cubes. Don’t sleep on this card; it’ll be a silent workhorse in lists that elect to include it.
Glyph Keeper
A resilient 5cc win condition.
What I Like: The 5cc creature slot in blue is pretty shallow, all things considered. Beyond Mulldrifter and Meloku the Clouded Mirror (and Morphling for crotchety old-school Magic players like myself) there aren’t a ton of good options. Enter Glyph Keeper. This creature is really hard to kill. It takes a pair of removal spells to break through its glass-spun protection ...and for what? Just to have this get Embalmed back for more? 5 power and flying presents a fast clock, and it’s just a bear to deal with.
What I Don't Like: If the 5cc creature options in blue were as rich and deep as they are in white and red, Keeper might not find many cube homes. It won’t be an uncuttable creature by any measure, but it’ll fill a gap in a relatively soft spot in blue’s creature curve.
Verdict: Soft competition will open up avenues for this to resolve to its fair share of cube boards. Not to take anything away from the Keeper itself, because it’s certainly good, but its main role will be filling a curve gap. Nevertheless, this thing will tally up kills in blue midrange decks and tapout control shells, because it presents a fast clock and it’s really hard to stop it from killing you. I would need this for my curve at 630, and it will see play in smaller cubes that feel like blue’s other 5cc creature options haven’t aged like wine.
Angel of Sanctions
A powerful utility 5-drop.
What I Like: Look, the 5cc creature section is stacked, and it takes a powerful printing to make cube managers inspect the section closely for replacements. Oblivion Ring effects are good in this format because the removal is so flexible and there always seems to be a prime target for the effect. For an additional 2 mana, you get a 3/4 flying creature strapped to it. Which means, after removing their most potent threat, you’re extremely likely to have a board advantage after AoS resolves. That would be near good enough at face value, but that would be ignoring Angel’s most powerful aspect—the Embalm. In addition to the great value you’re already getting from this Angel, you get to throw some card advantage into the mix too? It plays great from the yard after eating a premium removal spell, and keep their best non-land permanent from impacting the game almost indefinitely.
What I Don't Like: Man, the competition is fierce. Reveillark is a fantastic build-around card that can be one of the best cards in the shells it shines in. Angel of Invention is an important card for token/anthem strategies, in addition to contributing to the 2-power matters ETB abuse shells. Archangel Avacyn is just ...good. So that leaves Angel of Sanctions to compete against the #4+ 5cc white creatures. Including Baneslayer Angel, Cloudgoat Ranger and others; all of which are intrinsically strong cards. I currently have Baneslayer as that #4 card, but that’s largely because my playgroup loves Wildfire decks, and Baneslayer is a potent threat both in and against those strategies. But in most cube configurations, Angel of Sanctions is likely the better card. The Banishing Light effect plus the body will give you board advantage in a similar way to how Baneslayer’s combat prowess does, except you also have the fundamental card advantage built into the Embalm trigger.
Verdict: I should probably be making room for this at 540. But my post-Amnokhet configuration is going to be tight at this section, and some players in my playgroup will only let me pry Baneslayer Angel from their cold, dead hands. I’d snap play this at 630+, and it’s almost assuredly good enough for smaller cubes that aren’t as attached to their current 5-drop suite.
Hazoret the Fervent
Indestructible reach in God form.
What I Like: There are several aspects of Hazoret that appeal to me, but it’s the specific combination/arrangement of them that makes this ultimately worthwhile. It’s nice to put an indestructible permanent onto the battlefield that will eventually kill the opponent. If nothing else, this can function as a pseudo-Stormbind effect that can turn your draws into guaranteed sources of damage. Aggressive decks do a good job of getting their hand sizes down at a reasonable pace. While it’s true that a conventional curve of 1 spell and 1 land per turn will leave Hazoret a turn short of attacking on curve (thanks to Salmo for confirming these numbers for us) there are lots of ways that aggressive decks can change that curve ratio and make Hazoret live for his haste to be effective. Any card disadvantage spell anywhere along the curve will make him a live haste draw. Any fast mana in your curve will do it too. Any 2-spell turn, or 0-mana spell can also turn him on for on-curve beats. But even if you assume that he won’t be attacking the turn he resolves, it’s a valuable card to have on the table. A 5-power indestructible body is nothing to scoff at, especially in red aggro decks that normally struggle against big defensive midrange bodies. And with an aggro curve, 4+ lands and his activated ability at the ready, he’s really easy to activate on T5+. I’ve played a lot with cards like Blood Scrivener and Asylum Visitor–Cards that showcase how difficult it can be to get completely hellbent sometimes. After extensive testing with Hazoret, the difference between 0 cards and 1 card is a lot more than it seems it would be. It’s very easy to get him active. But even in the scenarios where you’re bottlenecked on cards, the combination of his activated ability and his indestructibility will get there. It can also serve as a backup discard outlet for decks playing from the bin. Obviously not fast enough for a dedicated reanimator shell, but he has no problem pitching a huge robot for Daretti/Feldon to bring back, or setting up a scary Living Death or something. And the reach (direct damage) can be used to keep opposing planeswalker loyalties under control if they’re otherwise insulated by blockers. It ultimately plays much better in person than it looks on paper.
What I Don't Like: Red’s 4cc creatures are quite competitive. Old school cubers will remember when that wasn’t the case ...but now, finding cuts is hard. Fortunately, there’s a decent amount of redundancy in that department, and I was able to cut a powerful but replaceable card for Hazoret, which I felt was a much more interesting and unique effect. I really expected to get stuck on cards more often than is taking place in practice. But the floor on this card can be pretty low if it gets hit by an Oblivion Ring or something before it ever had an opportunity to interact with the red zone.
Verdict: I originally didn’t think I was going to be able to find a cut I was comfortable with, but after identifying some redundancies, I was able to get this into the cube. And it’s been performing surprisingly well. I’m going to give this some extensive playtime at 540, and I expect it to make the cut at cubes this size. Cuts are probably too hard for it to fit into cubes that are smaller, but if you can, give it a go. Unique and interesting set of abilities, and quite a lot of fun in practice.
Trueheart Duelist
Solid card advantage 2-drop.
What I Like: Anytime you have a 2-power 2-drop that has the ability to generate card advantage, it’s worth looking at closely to examine its playability. Duelist is an interesting combination of build and ability, because the 2/2 for 2 that can be replayed from the graveyard later feels like something a beatdown deck might want. But the ability on it is a defensive one. It took some playtesting to figure out exactly where I wanted to play this card. It’s a fine 22-23 playable in an aggressive shell, just to have a random on-curve beater that can bring itself back from the dead post wrath, but it didn’t shine there. The real value was in its defensive capabilities. Being able to block two bodies, while very likely trading with at least 1 attacker, is quite the defensive ability. Duelist is good at defending resolved planeswalkers, and can function as both a pseudo Call of the Herd variant while also working a little bit like Moment's Peace. One particular line of play involved me having Duelist out with a Crystal Shard in play, and forcing the opponent to commit a 3rd body to the board before they could start pressuring me. Then I added a Maze of Ith to that board, and they had to add a 4th creature. I then proceeded to play Day of Judgment, and recast the Duelist, which prompted an immediate concession. I was more than a little surprised in testing to see how impactful the double-blocking actually was. Even in aggressive decks, blocking isn’t always irrelevant. It’s not part of the main gameplan, but sometimes you find yourself on your heels, and Duelist’s ability to essentially blank two combat steps from the opponent can actually break the aggro mirror; especially if you have an evasive beater that you can pressure with while the Duelist holds down the fort. Again, never plan A, but it’s nice to have that line of play as an option. Duelist is also a fine card in Orzhov stax decks, since it gives you two creatures to sacrifice, or it can be pitched to a Liliana plus or the like.
What I Don't Like: 2-drops with defensive abilities aren’t on the top of most cube managers want lists, simply because it doesn’t help aggro, where 2-drops are the most needed. If you elect to play Duelist, be wary of what you’re cutting for it, since you may not want to drop an aggressive creature to find room. It’s a much better defensive card, and can create some really awkward combat situations for your opponent, especially if they’re feeling pressured to deal with your planeswalkers and can’t.
Verdict: I was originally really high on this card, and then I cooled down a lot, and then came back up a bit. Ultimately settled somewhere in the middle. I will be giving his card some extensive playtest time in my 540 cube, but I’m not sure if it would make the cut if my cube was smaller.
Soul-Scar Mage
A unique aggressive 1-drop.
What I Like: This is part Monastery Swiftspear, and part utility creature. In a deck featuring a lot of ways to trigger the prowess, this can do a reasonable job of imitating a 2-power 1-drop. Additionally, the ability is pretty relevant in what is traditionally red aggro’s worst matchup, midrange. On Twitter, Brian Miller pointed out how impactful this ability can be with instant-speed burn, turning all your burn spells into combat tricks. Let’s look at a normal nightmare scenario for red aggro. Opponent resolves a Baneslayer Angel and passes. Unless you have two burn spells, you might as well pack it in. Mage shores up a big weakness here ...in fact, with a single burn spell, Mage can attack into the Baneslayer, kill it in combat and survive (Angel blocks, Bolt shrinks it to a 2/2, Mage becomes a 2/3). In addition to the combat value it provides, being able to manage the size of the opponents creatures is just useful. It allows me to drag down an opponent’s giant monster over multiple turns (even if I don’t have the second burn effect right away) and keeps the board manageable. It also combines really well with any repeatable damage effect, allowing cards like Grim Lavamancer and Cursed Scroll to kill/cripple bigger threats than they’re normally tasked to handle. And this creature is loads of fun with Garruk Relentless, allowing you to machine gun down 3/3 creatures (and smaller) with impunity. Overall it’s a really unique and interesting ability.
What I Don't Like: There are lots of situations where the -1/-1 counter play is just insignificant. And a 1/2 prowess without haste is pretty darn meh.
Verdict: This is not the next Goblin Guide. Hell, I don’t even think this competes with red’s tier-2 aggro 1-drops particularly well. But I do think this floats to the top of the tier-3 aggro beaters, and could easily replace creatures like Reckless Waif, Village Messenger and/or Goblin Glory-Chaser. It will be at or near the bottom of my 1cc red creature section at 540, but I do think it’s currently playable at this size. An easy slam-include into anything 630 or bigger. If you play a combat-centric cube that perhaps supports the spells matters deck, this may even find its way into smaller cube lists too.
Commit // Memory
A unique blue tempo effect.
What I Like: First and foremost, I need to give a shout-out to Gabrosin for going to bat for Commit. I liked the effect, and it was going to be in my top 20 list, but with the closer analysis provided, I really think this card has a chance to be great. The three cards in the cube most comparable to Commit are Unexpectedly Absent, Venser, Shaper Savant and Into the Roil. That’s pretty good company to be in. If nothing else, Commit can be used as a 1WW Unexpectedly Absent for 3U. It gives you the ability to remove dangerous and problematic permanents that resolved around or underneath your countermagic, and not only provides immediate relief from the effect, but buys time and tempo before you see it again. Venser maintains its card parity by providing a body; Into the Roil, by drawing a card. Commit does it by denying the opponent a draw. Which has multiple advantages, particularly when paired with this kind of effect. As Memory Lapse has shown, the ability to prevent the opponent from being able to re-cast the effect is important. Commit does that to whatever it “bounces” or counters. And it also buries it an additional card deep, so that you get an additional time buffer to figure out how to deal with the card. It’s a splashable, fixed-value Unexpectedly Absent. Commit is to a kicked Into the Roil what Memory Lapse is to Remand. It can impact the game from a tempo standpoint in a similar way to Venser, Shaper Savant. That’s a very decent baseline for the card to have, given that it also has a splashable casting cost. Oh, and it has a 6-mana flashback Timetwister stapled to it too... o.0
What I Don't Like: Competition at the 4cc blue spell section is pretty stacked. Small cubes will have a hard time finding an appropriate cut.
Verdict: I was originally pretty luke-warm on Commit, but Gabrosin’s sales pitch was on point. I started exploring comparable effects, and realized that this card has a lot going for it. And it secretly shoehorns in an extra draw-7 effect (which is not just flavor text; it’s a significant added bonus). I was able to find room at 540, which is hard to do, because the threshold for blue spells is steep. Not sure about 450 or smaller, but this is a pretty darn good card.
Irrigated Farmland Fetid Pools Canyon Slough Sheltered Thicket Scattered Groves
Cycling dual lands!
What I Like: Drifting Meadow has come a long way. Having cycling on lands is such a good ability, because at any time you don’t need the resources, you can cash it in to look for action. Topdeck one of these on T9 when it’s gas or bust? No problem. And the opportunity cost is now lower than ever to play with cycling lands ...because these fix your mana too! But there’s so much more to these lands. Interaction is key. First, they’re true duals, meaning they can be targeted by the fetchland cycle. This in itself opens up a lot of lines of play and increases their value by a lot. But in addition to that, there are several cards in the cube that care about land types. Your Vedalken Shackles can steal bigger creatures. Your Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary can tap for more mana. You can cast Snuff Out for free after a T1 ETBT nonbasic. It works with all of Koth of the Hammer’s abilities. And so on. In addition to the interaction that is introduced with the land types being a thing, bounce effects become late-game draw effects. As steve_man (our resident spoiler season [SCD] creation guru) pointed out, Kor Skyfisher can bounce a cycling land to your hand and allow you to subsequently cycle it away for a fresh card. This also works with Meloku the Clouded Mirror. Bounce effects that can target your cycling lands now essentially produce a Clue for you. Sometimes, cards can get value from multiple points of synergy; Daze, for example, can be cast for free off the land being an Island, but also returns it to your hand so you can cycle it away! Even without those kinds of interactions, the cycling itself has synergy with different cards in the cube. Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam both have tremendous synergy with cycling lands. Your Regrowth effects can turn into taxed cantrips. There are just a ton of small things these lands can do that really help boost their value, in addition to being mana-fixing lands that can be cycled away when you don’t need them (which would likely be good enough on its own).
What I Don't Like: They always enter the battlefield tapped. This is not an insignificant drawback. Most of the time, you’ll be able to find a place to comfortably insert them into your curve, but there will be occasions where the tempo setback is significant. Arguably hurts aggressive decks more since a tempo setback is more likely to be costly, but in practice I’ve found them to be perfectly playable in aggro decks; cycling lands out of my hand in search of more gas is not irrelevant.
Verdict: These lands are quite good, but are going to be largely barred from inclusion into small cubes because of the competition. Dual/Fetch/Shock/Manland still reign supreme in this format, so these are going to be #5 lands at best by default. This cycle is finally good enough for me to be willing to run a split cycle, and I’ll be playing these as my 5th allied guild lands at 540.
Glory-Bound Initiate
A hard hitting 2-drop.
What I Like: Historically 3/1 creatures for 2 mana haven’t been great in cube because of their propensity to trade away in combat. The exert ability on Initiate allows you to attack as a 4/4; tangling profitably with almost anything that you could reasonably expect to obstruct its path in the early/mid-game. That wouldn’t in and of itself be a good enough reason to run it over a generic 2-drop with evasion, but there’s more. When the path is clear, it can just crash in for 3, which outpaces the evasive creatures for damage. And then there’s the lifelink. The life-gain ability won’t always be relevant in every matchup, but in the windows where it matters, this creature can create some pretty significant life swings. In aggro mirrors for example, the opponent is doomed to have bad things happen. Either allow an 8-point life swing to occur, or chump it to preserve life, which kills off a blocker and still gains 4 life. That can be near impossible to race, and unlike a smaller body with lifelink, it’s impossible to trade it off the board in combat, and even one clean attack before it dies to removal can create a real uphill climb for the opponent. Also, if you can find ways to untap this (Flickerwisp sounds fun) it can exert on back to back turns.
What I Don't Like: It still dies to toughness-based removal pretty easily, and in the matchups where the opponent has lots of cheap blockers AND the lifelink is irrelevant, it would’ve been better off as a random evasive 2-drop.
Verdict: I started off feeling really good about this creature, but I’ve cooled a little. I think this is good enough for my 540 list, but I don’t know if it would survive a round of cuts down to 450. But it can hit hard, and if aggro mirrors are regular for your playgroup this creature might be a real monster. For cubes really looking for a 2-drop to dominate aggro matchups without letting off the gas, this could easily be playable at 450, or even smaller.
Never // Return
Versatile 3cc removal.
What I Like: Not a ton to say here. If you’ve played Ruinous Path in cube, you know how this’ll perform. I think it’s better than RP, because it doesn’t hemorrhage value with regularity. Every time I cast RP without Awaken, I was losing potential value. And 7-8 mana at once is a lot. With Never, I will always be able to cast this under any circumstance and still have access to the value side at a later point. And while that value doesn’t have a high a ceiling as RP does, always being an option is far more important. And the ability is solid too. Maindeckable graveyard hate that can randomly snipe an important graveyard card is always welcome; works well pre-Living Death or pre-Exhume too. Plus, it makes a 2/2 zombie body, which is fine in terms of tacked-on card advantage is concerned, and it works with Gravecrawler and Sarcomancy.
What I Don't Like: I wish the Return mode was an instant. But since it’s basically “free” value, I’m not going to whine too much.
Verdict: Ruinous Path was a solid card, largely because 3 mana kill any creature or ‘walker is a fine baseline for a card. I think Never is better, and so it’s an easy inclusion for me. Probably good enough for 450 cubes, easy include for me at 540+.
Gideon of the Trials
A solid 3cc planeswalker.
What I Like: The {+1} effect does a solid job of defending you and defending Gideon. Similar to an effect like Prison Term, it can continually scale up to start isolating whatever your opponent’s current biggest threat is. It also stops manlands from dealing damage, which is an important weakness for control to shore up. Even if you’re aggressive, the plus ability is valuable because it immediately starts the damage prevention—meaning that your smaller creatures can attack into bigger blockers. The middle {0} ability is strong too. Unlike other defensive 3cc utility cards, Gideon can actually turn into a significant threat and start crashing in for 4 once the coast is clear. Plays great with wraths; use the plus ability to force the opponent to overextend, then wrath the board away and start using the zero ability as a win condition. Gideon can also make an emblem that gives you Platinum Angel protection while you control a Gideon. That ability is being both overrated and misunderstood by the cube community at large. It’s by far the least significant ability he has, and it’s only going to be useful in a handful of windows. Since the opponent can just attack and kill Gideon and then kill you, his {+1} ability will usually do a better job of protecting you (and Gideon) from losing life. The value of the emblem comes from forcing the opponent’s hand. It won’t be good right before an otherwise lethal alpha strike other that serving as a distraction (in which case the plus ability might be better anyways). When the emblem becomes potent is when it exists AND you can use the plus ability to protect Gideon in the same round of turns. That means you need to carve out a spot somewhere in the curve to create the emblem when you can protect yourself and Gideon adequately, where attacking with Gideon isn’t the right line. Those windows are going to be tough to find. But even if you’re using Gideon to insulate an opponent’s threat and bash with an indestructible 4/4, that’ll be good enough.
What I Don't Like: You need to be prepared to use Gideon defensively. It can’t freely be thrown into a deck with the expectation of it being an indestructible 4/4 with upside (like I’ve heard it be evaluated elsewhere) because he’s vulnerable to dying on the crackback. It’ll be a defensive position-leveraging card first, and a creature second (and an annoying distraction a distant third). Also, the 1WW cost can limit the decks that can resolve this on-curve with consistency.
Verdict: I don’t want to undersell Gideon, because he’s a great card. But I do feel like he’s being overrated by the Magic community in general. I was able to find room for him at 540. It’s probably good enough for 450 even, since there aren’t a ton of great 3cc noncreature cards beyond the top 3-4. But it’ll very likely be the worst white planeswalker in most cubes that do run him, so space concerns and planeswalker saturation concerns will limit him from going into small lists.
Harsh Mentor
A solid red hatebear!
What I Like: I was surprised with the saturation of permanents in the cube that can be punished by Harsh Mentor. Approximately 20% of my cube consists of artifacts, creatures and lands that have non-mana activated abilities! What this equates to (since it hits a variety of lands) is right around 5-6 cards per deck that take damage off Mentor. The opponent will probably draw 2-3 cards per game that they can take damage from, which is a pretty surprising number of cards, considering the damage is completely asymmetrical and his cost is splashable. And some cards, like Enclave Cryptologist, Arbor Elf and Sensei's Divining Top just get hosed entirely out of usability by Mentor. As allred123 aptly pointed out, similar to effects like Thalia’s, it may be hard to see the impact that Mentor is having on the game unless you’re on the receiving end of it. If you find yourself wondering how every time your opponent has a Mentor out you seem to have equipment and Scroll Racks and fetches that are getting punished, and every time you play it you just get a Grizzly Bears ...you’re not. You just can’t see the impact it’s having all the time. This will lead to very polarized results being posted from this card, since it can be hard to quantify its impact. But any 2-power 2-drop that can either blank my opponent’s cards or force 4-6 extra direct damage per game (or some combination of the two) is just fine for my red decks.
What I Don't Like: This creature is anemic in combat. As a vanilla 2/2, it trades with just about everything. It’ll likely be better in burn-centric aggro decks (with Abbot, Swiftspear, Pyromancer, etc) where it will be backed up with a ton of removal to keep the path clear than it will be in traditional Zoo-style aggro decks with lots of creatures and combat. Unless you can pair him with good equipment or have him pilot a Copter or drive a Car.
Verdict: It’ll take some faith and some time to properly experience Harsh Mentor. Since the impact will often be hard to see, some players will snap cut this after a few drafts; probably with an incomplete evaluation process taking place. I think this is easily good enough for 450 cubes, perhaps smaller depending on your particular saturation of cards that are impacted by it.
Manglehorn
A strictly better Uktabi Orangutan ...finally.
What I Like: While Reclamation Sage is better because of the enchantment destruction, this is in two ways better than the Orangutan and Viridian Shaman are. First, the ability is a may, which is occasionally relevant if you just need to drop any random body that can carry a Sword for you and the opponent has no targets. Second, it forces all the opponent’s artifacts to enter play tapped. This is actually quite impactful. From preventing artifact creatures from being immediately available as blockers (including Thopters and Servos) to preventing mana rocks from being able to be tapped for mana immediately, this has a lot of uses.
What I Don't Like: I guess it’s kinda sad knowing that Uktabi Orangutan, a card with a rich and significant Magic history, has likely permanently had the door shut on its time in our fine format.
Verdict: If you were playing either Orangutan or Shaman before, clearly this just replaces it. If you weren’t playing one of those before, I think Manglehorn is better enough than they were to be worth playing. This becomes an instant-include for me at 540, and I’d play it at 450 too. Perhaps even 360 if the cube is powered.
Liliana, Death's Majesty
A good black 5cc card?
What I Like: First off, black’s 5cc cards are historically shallow on both sides of the spectrum. Very few decent creatures, and even fewer playable spells. Not only is Liliana actually good, but she kinda serves both roles. She has a big butt. I mean, costing 5 mana and immediately being able to tick to 6 loyalty (while protecting herself) is impressive. The {+1} ability not only produces a 2/2 creature, but it also spills some cards into your ‘yard to synergize with her other abilities (and enable other shenanigans). That ability alone is great. 4cc Elspeth produces a 1/1, 6cc Elspeth produces 3 power ...2 power being produced off a plus ability for 5cc seems like we may have precedent for something powerful here. Her {-3} ability is sweet. It’s slow for a dedicated reanimation effect, but it’s not hard to find either a big monster or a good utility target in the ‘yard to bring back for value. And she has an attainable ultimate that will sweep away all the creatures except your zombies (which she can make in multiple ways). Black has wanted a good 5cc card. Black has been in the need for a good 4-6cc planeswalker. Her effect plays well in lots of different black strategies, and I like the design and how it interacts with black’s other cards.
What I Don't Like: She loses so much loyalty on the reanimation effect that it seems unlikely to be able to bring a creature back from the dead (turning it into a zombie) and also being able to reach her ultimate in the same game. It seems like it would be a fun and synergistic way to explore her various functions, but looks too hard to pull off.
Verdict: I think the slot is vacant enough that this is a card that should be squeezed into a 450 cubes for sure. It might be good enough for 360 cubes as well. She has a nice combination of abilities that work well with one another, and as a creature engine, the power/loyalty/cost ratios look like they line up relatively well with known cube commodities. Happy to have her around.
Nissa, Steward of Elements
A great Simic planeswalker!
What I Like: I think this is a better Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in a guild with lower quality cards available. Which is a recipe for a new cube staple. I am going to try my very best with a giant wall of text to explain why:
Why Ashiok as a comparison? They serve a similar role, and shine in similar matchups. Except I think that Nissa is a good deal better than Ashiok in almost every respect. First, their roles. Both planeswalkers want to resolve early in matchups that avoid early pressure. They want to use their {+2} abilities to pull out of range, and use their middle abilities to create a board presence that circumvents intervention from countermagic. They have ultimates that are good against control decks, and they’re attainable. Now, Nissa is not strictly better, and I’m not trying to claim that. Ashiok resolves with more loyalty if played at 3 mana. In matchups that are particularly slow and ponderous, the mill 3 can actually serve as a backdoor win condition. And Dimir is a guild that has better removal for protecting the ‘walker. But I think the advantages begin and end with those points. So, let me delve into the specific abilities.
The {+2} ability of Scry 2 is significantly better in pretty much every instance where the game doesn’t come down to a player decking. Which, is probably 19 games out of 20. Being able to control the quality of your draws with that kind of precision and depth will be so much more impactful than the mill ability. Particularly in the Simic color combination, where you can combine the Scry effect (and the middle ability, for that matter) with Sylvan Library, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Brainstorm, etc. You get so much card quality filtering that you will pretty much guarantee to draw better than the opponent as the game progresses.
Now, I think Nissa’s middle ability is leagues better. First, since you are in control of the composition of the deck she’s targeting, the ability will be much more consistent. You’ll almost always be hitting cards, you’ll be finding targets with regularity that are not dependent on matchup to determine their quantity or quality, and you’ll be finding targets you know will mesh with the rest of your deck construction. Both ‘walkers are ideal midrange tools to battle against control decks, and in the right decks, the quantity and quality of targets will be perfect in every matchup. While both cards are limited to playing threats with a CMC ≤ their loyalty, Nissa’s ability doesn’t require you to remove loyalty to put a threat to the board. Words can’t express how important of a difference that is, since you can defend Nissa with the newly resolved creature and never have to lose any loyalty to do so. Lastly, Nissa’s middle ability can hit lands! You can use her to ramp you, fix your mana, play multiple lands a turn ...it just increases the versatility of what the card can do for you tenfold. Her middle ability is better in nearly every conceivable way, despite intending to function similarly.
Now, onto the ultimates. Both ultimates are strong, but Nissa’s is better for several reasons. First, it attacks the opponent from the same axis as the rest of your deck (and the rest of Nissa’s abilities). You’re killing the opponent through the red zone, so randomly adding 10 power worth of flying damage will win games on the spot a lot of the time. Second, since her middle ability doesn’t remove loyalty, you don’t ever interrupt her path towards reaching her ultimate. This will often mean that despite sometimes resolving with less loyalty, her loyalty values will be higher in most board states where the middle ability has been activated at least once, and using her middle ability won’t prohibit the eventual use of her ultimate. Third, she has an XCC casting cost. When topdecked in the later stages of the game, she’ll be much closer to an ultimate than Ashiok will because she’ll simply have more loyalty. And lets not overlook the fact that Nissa can be played when you’re flooded out. 8 mana is not an unobtainable value for green cube midrange decks by any measure. This will often be able to function as a 10-damage Simic fireball to the face ...that will occasionally leave a planeswalker behind!
That explains why I think the individual ability comparisons favor Nissa in a head-to-head comparison in situations where they both shine. But what about situations where neither is optimal? Neither ‘walker wants to resolve on boards where they’re going to be under any kind of immediate pressure. So aggro and explosive midrange matchups aren’t ideal for either of them. But I’d much rather have Nissa in my deck in the face of adversity, and I’ll try and explain why. First, the plus ability actually does something even if she’s under pressure. Milling 3-6 cards while Ashiok gets ground to dust in combat gave me a net of ...no real impact when the dust settles. Scry 2, on the other hand, is an effect I would consider to have at least some measurable value even if I don’t net card parity from the spell. Despite resolving with less loyalty when 3 mana is spent, her middle ability isn’t a minus. So IF Ashiok hits a creature with the exile, pressure on its loyalty can prohibit you from being able to get anything from the middle effect. Nissa, on the other hand, so long as she has any loyalty left, can still hit lands for free. Which will result in ramp/fixing and/or card parity when all’s said and done. And hitting an extra land can be big game in your bad boardstates; it can help to recover hemorrhaged tempo and reach the mana necessary to play board-stabilizing cards. And lastly, I can sandbag Nissa until I an resolve her with a loyalty value that can survive the aggression and be able to provide value. Since she can come down later in the curve without losing a loyalty tenure tax, you can wait to resolve her until the board is clearer and she’ll be better equipped to take advantage of it.
So ultimately, she’s everything I ever wanted Ashiok to be, without all the things that I don’t like about her Dimir counterpart.
What I Don't Like: There’s not much to dislike. Having a fixed cost with a better cost/loyalty ratio might be nice in a lot of cases, but it takes away the topdeck potential that makes her so explosive.
Verdict: I think she’s probably the best Simic card. Maybe the second best behind Edric if you support the kinds of decks where his powerlevel can reach blasphemous proportions. This pretty much makes Nissa a shoe-in for nearly every cube.
Dread Wanderer
A great recursive 2-power 1-drop.
What I Like: A 2-power 1-drop zombie with no lifeloss would be an easy include on its own. Add in the ability to recur itself, and you have a recipe for one of the best black 1cc creatures ever printed. Even if you don’t support true black aggro, this is a great creature for stax/recursion shells. If you do support black aggro, it just gets better and better. And, it’s a zombie for zombie shenanigans, which are always fun. And not just any zombie, a zombie jackal. Which is just pure badassery.
What I Don't Like: I have a really cool alter on my Vampire Lacerator, and it’ll hurt when I insta-cut it for this 1cc bomb.
Verdict: This is one of the best black 1cc creatures ever, and even if we got 10 more just like it, the value it has in recursive shells is so good that it’s spot is arguably secured indefinitely. I can’t imagine a situation that would arise where I would ever cut this creature.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the article. Please feel free to comment below so we can discuss the fantastic cube set that is Amonkhet! Cheers, and happy cubing.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Pretty surprise Commit//Memory is in fact that high on your list. I have to admit that the draw-7 part of it is damn real. That effect is rare and desirable is most cube lists. Curator of Mystreries, while not being something I would normally cube, is a card that I haven't even notice during my evaluation of the set. Pretty good limited bomb for Amonkhet limited environment! Would love to open one at the prerelease and put together a nice cycling decklist! About Nissa, I also agree that she's the second best simic card ever print.
Also, I was wandering, what have you cut for Hazoret exactly? Just curious.
Zetsu's Cube on CubeTutor.com
Zetsu's Ebay MTG Online Store
Zetsu's Poker Draft Method
Liliana da god.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
One thing: I think you might be misreading Combat Celebrant. He doesn't untap himself, so him + a 2-power dude is only ("only") 8 damage.
Akrasia, a Custom 360 Cube
New To Cube?
Cubing with Two: A Guide to Two-Player Draft Formats
I also warmed up significantly to this card (enough to test it).
Less that I think the card is very powerful, and more that it fills a gap in what blue lacks. Answers to non-creature permanants.
Works well with the instant speed game. Tolarian Academy/artifact decks can probably make great use of both sides. Green/Blue ramp decks would love having access to both sides vs control... and straight control wouldn't mind "memory" as a safety valve in grindy mirrors if they might deck themselves.
Extremely surprised cast out didn't make the top 20. white 4cc section probably the major reason.. but man, I can't imagine larger lists not playing the card. Flash Oring, as well as an efficient emergency valve when you are mana screwed seems so good to me. I won't be surprised if it turns out to be as good or better than oblivion ring.
The cycle cost sort of muddys it's spot on the curve... Not a true 4cc spell. (IE if you are building a deck that is over-satured with 4CC spells by a small margin, the cycle option smooths out your curve, not true if your deck is all 4cc spells tho =P)...
But yeah, making a top 20 for this set is not an easy feat
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
Unfortunately Combat Celebrant doesn't untap himself. Probably needs reevaluation and likely doesn't make the top 20 cards from this set.
Every draft where Ashiok is played I see people getting decked. In the control mirror, it is even a likely outcome if she is played early. I'd say it is closer to 15%-20% of the time (assuming control is 33% of the field).
If she had a fixed cost of 1UG I'd say Ashiok is better. But that scalability is too much to compete with. I think Nissa is very likely the best Simic card. The guild needed this.
Garruk, Primal Hunter produces larger tokens for the plus ability, in a color that can ramp him quickly (and is still an endangered cube card). No precedent here. I think Liliana is overrated and is just another placeholder at that point of the curve.
Did you playtest Commit//Memory?
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
So I am for putting only #1 and #2 for power level.
I am excited about Nissa's 0 ability. Blue and green are the best top decker colors and it creates a new way for of CA for the colors. Hopefully in the future Red gets more of it too.
I am putting in Manglehorn for utility and the Blue duals because the alphas are too expensive and I dont proxy.
Thanks again for the previews.
Slot competition aside, Garruk's cost is more intensive, starts with 2 less loyalty, his -3 is much easier for the opponent to disrupt, and his ultimate is slower.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
@Zetsu_Sensei: You're welcome! My changes aren't 100% finalized yet. When they are, I'll post 'em in my cube thread.
@steve_man: Mentor just looks like an easy card to cube with. Just throw it into the deck and let it do the work for you. There's some merit to that.
@noratora: I fixed the Celebrant text. Thanks for pointing that out.
@LucidVision: I like Cast Out a lot. Ultimately I rated it as an includable card in or around the same size as a lot of other cards, but since the competition is so stiff I wasn't 100% on it going in for sure. Cycling is great, but O-Ring effects are so universally valuable that I thought the cycling meant slightly less on that card than the Force Spike and the Disenchant. It was one of MANY cards that warranted discussion.
@metamind: Ashiok was never close to decking the opponent 20% of the time for us. Even in slow matchups, it was a real rarity. The 5cc Garruk can produce 3/3s, it's true, but it also resolves with a lot less loyalty, the {+} ability doesn't do anything but make the body, he has a harder casting cost, and the competition is stacked. Garruk was good too, if it weren't for the competition being even stronger, he'd still be in there. Having a good card get edged out by great competition isn't precedent for another good card somewhere else to be bad.
@Patousan: I do think these cycling lands are the 5th best cycle, and I'll be running them in my cube, yes.
@JinxedIdol: I can certainly see that. The blue cycling lands are really good.
Thanks again everybody!
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
And this set gave us a couple of 'em.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
One thing, I am curious you did not include is the new clone variant, Vizier of Many Faces. I think I like it more than Curator of Mysteries. Plague Belcher is also a card I'm looking at for my 720 list, but I can see it not making the top 20.
And at last, the blue god is also interesting - at least testable for my list aswell (I will probably cut my devotion package, Thassa and Master of Waves).
I was not sure I would include Trueheart Duelist, but you have convinced me for now .
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Your review of Nissa has led me to proxy up the card and add it for testing. I'll see if the playgroup ends up liking it. I think my initial reluctance was I saw it more as a large X spell that could randomly pull from my library when initially pumping a large amount of mana into it. Your analysis on it being able to pull defenders has added some food for thought for it at lower mana costs.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/414
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Surprised not to see Glorybringer on the list - a reusable kavu strapped to a dragon is pretty gross, no love? I think I'd also like to try Cast Out, but the 4CC slot is so super stacked in white it's really hard to find room. A lot of tough choices in this set, it's pretty great for cube overall!
I also think Regal Caracal is a pretty good choice, I'd say any lists currently running Cloudgoat Ranger should consider swapping it out for this guy. You get a similar effect, but trade in the ability to jump for a lord effect on a surprisingly decent amount of cats that a lot of cubes run at 2-3 CMC. Running this guy out after a Brimaz would be pretty nice!
The Dragon is good, but I think it loses out to a lot of red's 5cc competition. A 5th toughness and I would've slammed it into the cube.
Cast Out is an amazing spell. Really. But, it suffers from the fighting the most stacked slot in the cube, and it does lose a little bit of value from its cycling given how universally valuable the effect is (like, I just can't see myself cycling a flash Oblivion Ring nearly as often as a Force Spike or Disenchant, for example).
I like Cloudgoat quite a bit more than the Caracal though, despite Caracal being a good card. The evasion is really important, it produces more total bodies (making it benefit more from Anthem effects and the like), and the ETB trigger part of the card is stronger (for blink/bounce interactions).
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Though out of the 4 mana monoblue clones, hes probably the best just for card advantage
Ya, I pretty much felt the same. There's the splashable one with Flash that's pretty cool too, but it's hard to ignore the card advantage and the ability to get value if it's discarded. Vizier is a good creature to pitch to an early loot activation.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Thanks for all the work on these. For those of us who get to draft once a month, it's nice to have someone experienced doing extensive testing on these cards. My list of acquisitions and includes always changes a little after reading reviews, with special weight to yours and Usman's.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
And for anyone who has a larger cube or doesn't want to put the money up for ABU duals the new lands are amazing. I am pretty disgusted that I can't find room for them. My group just doesn't play enough and isn't big enough to want a larger cube. Plus we are now in need of a new set of fetch lands to make things really sing.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic