This is my 28th 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.
Part two of the new RTRTR block, Ravnica Allegiance focuses on the 5 guilds that weren’t covered in Guilds of Ravnica. It’s a fun set, and it’s full of flavor wins …as well as a few cube goodies along the way. It wasn’t the powerhouse set for some of the guilds I wanted it to be, but it has a few nice surprises that will make a lot of cube managers happy.
What I Like: One of the biggest problems with Pod decks in the cube is that the deck is limited to only one copy of its namesake card. Prime Speaker Vannifar provides an additional copy of the effect to help with deck consistency, and she happens to be tutored up by all the creature tutoring effects that Pod decks love to run. PSV can really help the deck by adding a redundant effect into the archetype.
What I Don't Like: Unlike Birthing Pod itself, PSV is harder to cast, more fragile, and slower. I had a hard time with Pod decks when I’ve cubed them before. Partly because of the consistency issues, but also because it can be a bit too slow and grindy against explosive decks. While PSV fixes the first issue, it doesn’t do anything to correct the second one.
Verdict: I don’t think the new Prime Speaker is suddenly going to make Pod a great cube archetype for folks that don’t play it now, but if you enjoy Pod strategies already, she’ll make a great pickup that’ll be immediately useful for your playgroup. Especially considering that the competition in the Simic section isn’t stellar.
What I Like: Fires effects can be powerful if you dedicate the slots to support the archetype. Rhythm is a much more flexible version of this effect, since Riot gives you the option of adding +1/+1 counters in matchups/situations where the haste isn’t impactful. It also happens to make all your critters uncounterable in matchups where that’s relevant. Additionally, fellow cube enthusiast ryansaxe has pointed out on multiple platforms that Rhythm can help support the persist combo as well, so if you’re playing a +1/+1 counters matters combo, you can add Rhythm to your toolbox for extra redundancy.
What I Don't Like: Unlike some of the other Fires effects, I can’t use Rhythm to bolster tokens. Which means that a lot of the insane Fires/Sarkhan curves that involve Deranged Hermits and Siege-Gang Commanders and other army-in-a-can monsters don’t work here. Especially for folks that are fully all-in on the Fires deck that play Saproling Burst and the like; they won’t be able to abuse Rhythm the same way. It’s probably closer to Lightning Greaves than Fires of Yavimaya (as was pointed out by alanyuan0408 here) because it provides some protection and some juice for singular big monsters rather than for armies of small ones.
Verdict: I don’t think this is going to make it on its own, and I don’t think it’s good enough to suddenly make supporting a Fires archetype worthwhile if you weren’t already doing so… But, if you currently play a Fires suite, this can be an interesting additional tool for that toolbox, and you can make the archetype support that much deeper.
What I Like: A 2-mana 2/2 that rummages when it enters the battlefield is a pretty decent floor. It’s not far off from being cubeable as a red card with that baseline, though it probably just falls short. What makes this card interesting for cubes is the ceiling it has with the Spectacle mode. Dumping your hand with an aggro deck is relatively easy, and the Reveler can help refill your hand with gas after getting yourself hellbent. 4 mana for a 2/2 that draws 3 cards is a pretty insane ceiling. Most often, it’ll probably net 1-2 extra cards in Spectacle mode, which will make it more akin to like a 4cc Rakdos Mulldrifter. And we could do worse than that.
What I Don't Like: When you can’t turn on Spectacle, the floor is just too mediocre for a card that takes up a guild slot. This card runs hot when things are going well, but turns suboptimal pretty easily if you get behind and have problems pushing damage through.
Verdict: The competition in BR is relatively steep in small- to medium-sized cubes, and I don’t think the effect is needed enough or unique enough to push out any of the cards I currently play. But if I had a few more slots available I would definitely want to give this some extended testing. It might be worthwhile for larger cubes in the 720+ range.
What I Like: When this card is in your opening hand, it’s bonkers good. Getting a free Scry 3 attached to your keep allows you to sculpt a good curve or potentially avoid a catastrophe. Having that upside strapped to a 4/4 flying body for 4 mana is good, especially with the additional late-game scry it can provide too.
What I Don't Like: When this card isn’t in your opening hand, it’s pretty mediocre. A 4/4 flying creature for 4 mana is an okay rate, but it’s nothing special in this era. The additional scry triggers are nice and all, but without the initial scry 3 trigger I just don’t think it gets there.
Verdict: I don’t think this competes against the top 4-drops in blue, but larger cubes may have some room to explore the Sphinx’s potential. I have a personal disliking for cards with this kind of variance; I don’t much care for Miracle spells, and this card has similar boosts in powerlevel that are contingent on when the card is drawn. I think in a 720+ card cube that has a free 4cc creature slot to explore other options with might enjoy testing Sphinx, but I don’t think this breaks into tighter lists.
What I Like: The floor of being an 0/2 Reflecting Pool for 2-mana isn’t great, but 2cc ramp is always still a reasonable play. It can help fix for double-color costed spells in the curve, and later on, it can be Adapted into a Gilded Lotus of sorts. Once it levels up (which it can do on T4 thanks to its own ramp) you can reasonably play 8cc cards on T5 with only this creature doing any of the ramping. Plus, it’s a 3/5 body at that point, which isn’t nothing.
What I Don't Like: Unlike 2cc cards that truly fix your mana, this can’t help you cast spells for colors you’re missing. It’s also quite fragile. As an 0/2 it does basically nothing on the board (other than ramp, of course) and You have to sink 5 more mana into it before it does something really worthwhile. That can be risky, because removal in response to a 5cc activation can be a nasty blowout.
Verdict: I wouldn’t remove any of the common 2cc ramp creatures for this because I think it falls short of replacing any of them outright. But with some help (like perhaps a +1/+1 counters matter theme or something) it can be a very appealing card for some cubes. At face value, it’s probably worth testing at 720+. But if you can turn this into a Gilded Lotus by dropping random +1/+1 counters on it in multiple other ways? …those cubes might be interested in this regardless of what size they are.
What I Like: There are some strategies that get completely hosed by Lavinia, and she shuts off several powerful spells in the cube. Basically, her first clause turns off Delve spells and non-creature ramp targets. If the opponent’s deck is planning on playing mana rocks into big planeswalkers and spells, Lavinia just says no. Plus she’ll randomly turn off Force of Wills and Snuff Outs and the like. Against the right deck, you can just completely prevent the opponent from doing anything productive.
What I Don't Like: The noncreature clause is a killer for my playgroup. A lot of the big mana ramp decks that are hardcasting expensive cards off mana rocks are doing so by casting creatures to end the game. And Lavinia doesn’t stop that. If the Channel target is Ugin, she’s gold. But if it’s Ulamog, Lavinia hasn’t done anything. She can shut off Tooth and Nail, but not Craterhoof. The disruption she provides is going to be far more random in our format than in someplace like Vintage or Legacy where she might be a complete bomb.
Verdict: If you enjoy the hate-bear cards that are just broken in certain windows/matchups, Lavinia might just be for you. If you support a lot of spell-based combo decks that cast big mana spells off land-doubling effects and mana rocks, Lavinia might just be the stone nuts for your group. We don’t play those kinds of decks here, so she’s not going to be nearly as back-breaking as she might be for others. But if you play spell-focused combo decks, Lavinia might definitely be worth a close look.
What I Like: This is basically a red Quicken that exchanges the one mana Cantrip for a Volcanic Geyser. And you can always overpay to get more damage than the casting cost of the spell. But it allows you to play powerful sorcery-speed effects as instants, and basically strap a free X spell on for your troubles. There are some powerful interactions like Ancestral Vision where you can really break the effect, but in most cases you’ll have to cause your blowouts the old fashioned way by flashing in ETB monsters in the middle of combat and the like.
What I Don't Like: Like LucidVision mentioned in the SCD, I too am skeptical of these kinds of effects because I played a lot of the recent Expertise cycle and none of them really stuck. There were too many inconsistencies where I had a card I couldn’t cast/didn’t need in my hand paired with the enabling effect, and the baseline effect was so underpowered at face value that I felt underwhelmed at the end of the exchange. Since Electrodominance’s cost is going to be 2cmc higher (at a minimum) than the “free” spell you cast, most of the high-impact plays would’ve been put out there on curve.
Verdict: Ultimately I think this is going to be a much spicier card for constructed than it will be for our format. Most of the plays will likely be too fair, and unless you’re running a lot of the free suspend spells, it might not quite be enough. But I’m not willing to write it off completely. Instant-speed X-damage spells will provide a decent baseline, and getting to blast something for 4 and put out a good 4cc spell will still be a very powerful play. May be worth some extended testing at 630-720 or so.
What I Like: If you play Delver strategies in the cube (spell-heavy tempo decks in Izzet/Jeskai) keep a close eye on the new salamander drake. It resolves as a flying men, but mid-game it can bolster itself into a formidable creature. It reminds me a bit of something like Tombstalker; ultimately I’ll invest a small to medium amount of mana, and I’ll wind up with a 5/5 flying creature. But unlike the Delve effects that are similar, this critter doesn’t “eat” them as a resource. If it gets bounced or tucked, I can just as easily get it back to full force on the battlefield again.
What I Don't Like: 7 instants/sorceries is a huge ask in this format, so it being a 2-mana 5/5 is going to be pretty darn rare. The creature doesn’t become really “good” until you can activate it for 3-mana or less, so it functions as a 4-mana 5/5 flyer whose cost can be paid over two mana installments. That means you need at least 4 spells in your graveyard. It’s doable, but it’s not exactly easy.
Verdict: I expect this to be a good constructed card. And if spell-heavy tempo decks are your cup of tea, this will probably slot in quite nicely right next to your Delver of Secrets. I would expect most larger cubes in the 630-720 range to be supporting some kind of dedicated tempo strategy, and this will fit right in there. But this may find a home in smaller cubes too if you’re a fan of these kinds of decks.
What I Like: The ceiling on this card is great. As long as you can push damage through for free or on the cheap, this will often function like a red draw-two for one mana. You can play lands off the spell, and you can play cards until the end of your next turn, so it’s pretty hard to fail to generate card advantage off this spell as long as the deck has a low enough curve and you have the ability to deal damage. KMAYER made the comparison to something like Thoughtcast, and the comparison is pretty apt. A 1-mana draw-2 in the right deck, and largely uncastable in other situations.
What I Don't Like: The bad Divination is a rough floor, and decks that have stabilized against your pressure can effectively turn it off. Additionally, if you support a lot of different red decks, like I do, there are several builds that simply can’t use LUtS because they can’t reliably provide cheap early pressure to enable the Spectacle cost.
Verdict: This is another card that will likely be better in constructed than in cube, but if turning red creatures sideways is the bulk of red’s identity in your cube, the card certainly has potential. Worth testing, but I expect the card to settle somewhere in the 630-720 range.
What I Like: This creature is a lot of different guys in one. Since it has two different ETB modes and two different body sizes to choose from, it can be a very flexible monster. There are quite a few lands that can be destroyed by his trigger, and the fight is a powerful keyword in a lot of situations. Fight + haste on a 4-power guy is strong when you’re the beatdown, and a 5/6 body + fight is good on defense. A 4/5 haste that blows up Karakas, Azcanta or Maze of Ith is a good aggressive play, and a 5/6 blocker that blows up a manland is good when you’re on your heels. It does a lot of things, and it functions well in pretty much every game quadrant.
What I Don't Like: Gruul sections might not have room for a 2nd big monster, and Dragonlord Atarka is just too strong in similar roles to cut for this.
Verdict: Gruul midrange’s top-end has good cards to choose from, but it’s not loaded at the 6cc slot. Ravager Wurm can fill that curve gap a bit for larger cubes, and if I had room for 6 or so cards per guild, I’d want to give the Wurm a chance to compete in one of those slots. I think 630-720 is probably about the right range for this guy.
What I Like: In decks engineered around cheap creatures that will flip themselves in and out of play often that generate a lot of bodies and sacrifice them for value (aristocrats decks) Judith is going to be a bomb. The +1/+0 will matter for turning your small creatures into threats that can deal significant amounts of damage, and combining that with the damage trigger, even small creatures can trade up in big ways. 1/1 creatures can trade with X/3 creatures in combat, and the additional power and the additional reach can add up in big ways. LucidVision has had a surprising amount of success with Judith in testing because of how her two abilities compound into a threatening combination against even congested boards. She plays well in aggro, but plays even better when combined with all the other tools the aristocrats deck uses to gain value out of sacrifice effects, and she’ll naturally slot into an existing archetype if you support those kinds of decks.
What I Don't Like: She’s limited to Rakdos decks that are applying pressure with cheap creatures and/or are taking advantage of a sacrifice theme. If you play lots of different archetypes within Rakdos (like Wildfire decks, BR control, Sneak/Reanimator strategies and the like) she won’t be able to contribute in the same way that other BR options can.
Verdict: Absolutely good enough for Rakdos aggro decks. Becomes a snap-include for cube managers that support an aristocrats package. I think at face value she can easily earn a slot as the 5th or 6th Rakdos card, making her an easy card to include for 630-720 card cubes. But if you support a Rakdos aristocrats theme, you should probably play her at any size cube.
What I Like: Tithe Taker has a good baseline rate. It’s a 2-power creature for 2 mana with a splashable cost, that generates a 2nd evasive body once it dies. On those metrics alone, it will play well in aggressive strategies that play equipment, since if the opponent sweeps the board away on their turn, you can immediately equip and attack with an evasive creature on the next turn. And while the disruption isn’t as powerful as something like Thalia, it still interrupts a lot of plays which can cause problems for the opponent’s curve. It can often force the opponent to play their spells at sorcery-speed, which limits their effectiveness, and it increases the value of your disruption effects like Mana Tithe, Force Spike and Daze. It obviously taxes countermagic, but it’s also good against instant-speed removal, flash creatures and powerful activated abilities that the opponent might be relying on using at instant-speed to execute their gameplan effectively.
What I Don't Like: Some decks simply won’t care about the disruption, and the 2/1 body is rather anemic on its own if the opponent is just curving out with good midrange monsters. Since aggro decks have the hardest time with those kinds of decks, Tithe Taker doesn’t shine in the matchups you need the most help with.
Verdict: If you support a hate-bears strategy (and that’s the way you prefer to draft aggro) this creature will be an easy inclusion …even at smaller cube sizes. But if your cube has a healthy amount of midrange play, Tithe Taker may just miss the cut. I think I would be able to find room for this creature at 630, but based on my current cube metagame it just misses for inclusion at 540.
What I Like: First off, this allows aggressive Gruul decks to easily maindeck artifact and enchantment hate without having to include cards that don’t pressure the opponent. It will often play out like a Seal of Cleansing that applies a bit of incidental pressure while you’re waiting for a prime target to destroy with it. If you support storm combo or other archetypes that chain several non-creature cards together to execute their gameplan, the front half of Cindervines will provide more value for you than normal. And if you’re looking for a good maindeckable Naturalize effect for RG, Cindervines is that too. For unpowered cubes, this is probably a better option than something like Ancient Grudge or Tin-Street Hooligan, which rely on having an early target to be great.
What I Don't Like: 3 mana for a Naturalize and a Shock to the face is fine, but not amazing in this format. Some decks don’t care about the front half of Cindervines, so it won’t do much for you other than being an expensive Smash to Smithereens. There are lots of matchups where this would be better off as a cheaper Naturalize (against powerful starts in powered cubes) or an effect that’s strapped to a body (so you can build your board while disrupting the opponent in a traditional unpowered matchup).
Verdict: If the front half of Cindervines is appealing because the damage triggers add up against powerful storm strategies, this is a decent replacement for whatever Shatter variant you might be playing in Gruul. I would play this in unpowered lists maybe 540-630 in size, and in powered cubes where Storm is a thing. But for me, something like Grudge or Hooligan is better on average because my powered cube presents early artifacts too often to wait until T3 to pop them. Even so, there’s a chance that the incidental damage (off both modes of the card) and the extra enchantment hate is enough to make it better than Grudge or Hooligan when the games run longer or an early target isn’t available.
What I Like: I really like Downfall in the cube, and if my deck has the black sources to cast that card and also has access to red mana too, Bedevil is just a good card. The ability to hit every artifact in the cube in addition to already hitting every creature and every planeswalker makes this a very powerful and flexible removal spell; especially at instant speed. If your deck can support the mana cost, it makes it very hard to argue against including this in your final 40, which makes it a good flexible use of a guild slot.
What I Don't Like: Rakdos has effects similar to this already available to it. This is certainly no Kolaghan’s Command, and I’m not sure if this is better than Dreadbore. It has the advantage of hitting artifacts and being an instant, but the 2nd black mana in the cost makes it less splashable when black is the secondary color, and it can’t be used to answer a really early threat if you wind up waiting for the 2nd black. A lot of Rakdos decks like Dreadbore because it’s both cheap and has easy mana, making it easy to squeeze into a turn where you want to make two plays. Bedevil will be harder to do that with.
Verdict: I think this is a good card, and at face value, it can easily be the 4th or 5th best Rakdos card. But since some slots are going to be consumed by archetype support cards and there’s only so many generic removal spells that players like to include in their guild sections, it might prevent Bedevil from seeing the amount of cube play it probably should. If you elect to include it, the card will be good. But it can be an easy card to pass on because it has a relatively generic effect that can be found in your existing suite of cards. I would play this card if I had one more Rakdos slot available, which makes it a 630 card for me, but playing this at 540 or even 450 might certainly be right for a lot of playgroups.
What I Like: 4cc cards that unconditionally kill every creature are rare. In fact, there are only 4 of them out there that have ever been made, and they’re all commonly cubed cards. This effect is limited to Orzhov exclusive decks because of the restrictive mana cost, but if you play a lot WB control (like I do) this card has a high ceiling and is one of the most effective sweepers available for the cost. I reached out the the math wizard himself, Mr. Frank Karsten, when I first started contemplating Kaya’s Wrath for the cube. I was deeply concerned with the AABB mana cost, and wanted to know the math behind its castability woes. It turns out that in a deck with 10 sources of white and 10 sources of black (mana demand that I would consider a minimum for 4cc double-colored spells) Kaya’s Wrath is about 12% harder to cast. A deck with that mana can cast something like Day of Judgement off its first 4 mana sources about 89% of the time, and may only be able to cast Kaya’s Wrath about 77% of the time. This is certainly a statistically significant difference, and I’m not trying to say it’s not. But, the ceiling on true 4cc wrath effects is so high that I wanted to give the spell a chance to prove its worth, and see how often the mana cost prohibits me from casting it on curve. So far in testing it has played quite well …but those of you that know how I draft know how much emphasis I put on mana when drafting. Decks meeting true mana demand minimums can have issues with the card. If you’re under a 10/10 manabase, you can’t really play it. But for a deck that has an insane 13/12 manabase or something can cast it without any issues at all. I found when drafting Orzhov control that mana is simply an issue for that color combination, and it always has been. There are a lot of good double-colored 3- and 4-casting cost cards that require a lot of colored mana sources to cast. In practice, this means that my Orzhov decks are already prepared for a card like Kaya’s Wrath, since my 12/12 manabases I’m drafting to cast my difficult costed 3-drops are already ready to cast something like Kaya’s Wrath on curve well over 80% of the time. If you read my article on mana demands in the cube, you know that I consider 75% castability to be “reliable” for the sake of a volatile format like cube. Which means that even with minimum mana demands and a 10/10 manabase, this card is reliably castable on curve. This is much easier to do with an 18-land Orzhov control deck than it might be for a 15-land Boros aggro deck, which is why this spell is so much more playable than an AABB-costed spell would be for most other decks. The spell really has to be worth it in order to justify a difficult cost like that, and the 4cc true wrath aspect of this card is just enough to push me into trying it out. The lifegain will occasionally be a nice free upside when it takes down a random Wall of Omens or Solem Simulacrum you have in play down with it, but it’s really not the reason why the card is good. White and black have access to good sweepers already, but if you often use those cards for dedicated WB control decks, you might be able to trim one of the lesser sweepers from one of the two colors and squeeze Kaya’s Wrath in for testing. In decks that can cast it, it’s going to be better than the fringe options that don’t kill every creature or cost more mana.
What I Don't Like: Well, the mana woes. It’s castable in dedicated Orzhov control with good mana, but it’s not a card that will be playable in Esper or Mardu control unless your mana is particularly bonkers (and the U or R splash is completely free). You have to watch out for colorless mana sources of any kind, and you really need the right manabase for the spell. If WB control isn’t a deck you draft, Kaya’s Wrath isn’t a card you’ll want or need. But that kinda goes without saying.
Verdict: If you play dedicated Orzhov control, I think this can crack into the top 4 WB cards, and get into cubes that are 450 or 540 in size. If you don’t play those kinds of decks, this isn’t a card for you. Easy as that.
What I Like: Forerunners is kinda like a hybrid between Craterhoof Behemoth and something like Hellkite Overlord. Not as good as ‘Hoof in my go-wide elf/token Natural Order decks, and not as good as Woodfall Primus or the like in a reanimation build; but there’s value in the fact that Forerunners is playable in both. It makes for a reasonable backup target for ‘Hoof in decks where ‘Hoof is a stud, and it’s a decent enough thing to cheat onto the battlefield early if I’m reanimating stuff. Craterhoof might not even be playable in a true dedicated reanimation build, but Forerunners has been good in testing so far in that role. It turns my discard outlet creatures into formidable attackers the turn it resolves, and the big vigilant body keeps me safe on defense before I attack for lethal on the following turn. There are few hastey reanimator targets available, and this can put on a lot of pressure fast, even on its own. And even in ‘Hoof decks, in every instance where ‘Hoof wouldn’t immediately win the game, Forerunners is still valuable because the combination of vigilance + the better base body makes it something worth leaving around. I’ve been stuck in situations before where my opponent has swept the rest of my board away and ‘Hoof just doesn’t do enough in its own …Forerunners is still a big scary threat in those moments.
What I Don't Like: Most smaller cubes simply won’t have room for a backup copy of their primary plan. While there’s value for medium-sized cubes to have extra copies of big monsters floating around, it’s just not necessary for small cubes.
Verdict: I will be playing this at 540, and it’s been doing quite well in testing so far. I’m not sure if 450-card cubes are going to be able to find room for this though, and it might not be necessary in cubes smaller than mine anyways, despite being a darn-fine monster.
What I Like: Given time and a willingness to create more Oozes, Biogenic Ooze will completely take over a game in a way that few other 5-drops do. The most common comparison seems to be Whisperwood Elemental, but I like the Ooze quite a bit more. They both pass the turn to the opponent with 6 power and 2 threats, but as the game moves forward, the Ooze outgrows the Whisperwood in both size and board presence. If you create another Ooze the following turn, you’ll have 11 power across 3 bodies when you pass the turn, while Whisperwood will have made its 8th power. The turn after that, you’ll have 17 power and 4 bodies where the Elemental would’ve made its 10th. The oozes grow in size on their own, and by quantity if you sink the mana into it. It’s more mana intensive, but that doesn’t matter very much, considering that the game pretty much ends if they don’t answer the main Ooze body right away. Additionally, the Ooze is better against an immediate Go for the Throat or something, since it still generates a 2nd 2/2 Ooze as a base effect. More importantly, the Ooze is loaded with interactions too. It can be grabbed by both Recruiters. It can be targeted by Alesha and Reveillark. It’s better with blink and bounce interactions. It’s INSANE with clone effects because of how the multiple growth triggers stack on all the oozes. The other comparison is Kalonian Hydra because of the ability for it to attack for a ton over just a few turns. While the Hydra does outrace the Ooze for damage, it’s also worse (nonfunctional) on defense, and puts all your eggs in one basket vs targeted removal. Ooze is kinda the whole package. It is powerful on its own, often needs to be the last card you resolve in a game, has a built-in mana sink, and it’s loaded with interactions. It’s kinda like a big Pack Rat that exchanges going down on cards for costing more mana. Plus, there are a handful of other Oozes that get pumped by him too, which always makes things fun and interesting.
What I Don't Like: Between Hermit, Slime and Thragtusk, the 5cc green creature slot is stacked for small cubes already. And the Ooze is weak to cheap removal the turn it resolves.
Verdict: I think Ooze should easily push out the #5 green 5cc creature (whether that’s Hydra or Whisperwood or whatever else) and be a slam dunk for 540 cubes. And there’s a decent chance it might be better than Verdurous Gearhulk and be worthwhile at 450. But I don’t think this can crack into 360 card cubes.
What I Like: Well, this is essentially a 5-power flying 4-drop with two other redundant forms of evasion for pushing damage through that can also grow itself in power in the later stages of the game. And that’s at its floor. The ceiling on this card of only costing 3 mana is obviously insanely high, and most aggressive decks won’t have that hard of a time turning the Spectacle on. When this creature resolves for 3 mana, it’s a hell of a card …and in my playtesting experience with the card so far, that’s the vast majority of the time. And even at 4-mana, this is a good enough curve-topper that the card’s floor shouldn’t preclude you from playing it in your aggro decks.
What I Don't Like: Not much not to like if you support black aggro. If you have a disruption-heavy opening hand that can’t apply any life-total pressure the Spectacle might be harder than normal to trigger, but that’s being relatively picky for a card with the average performances I’ve seen from Spawn so far—the Spectacle has been reliable and it’s good even in the rare situations where it gets played for 4 mana.
Verdict: If you support conventional black aggro with 2-power 1-drops and the like, Spawn is an easy include, even for cubes all the way down to 360/450 in size. If you’ve scaled back the black aggro package, this probably can’t make it in the smallest of cubes though. And obviously, if you don’t play black aggro at all, this isn’t worth your time.
What I Like: I want to start off by saying that this is better than it looks. Even if you think it’s good, it’s probably better than you think it is. In the early game, it can set you up with evasive attackers while providing some incidental lifegain in the process. Our very own simpygdog pointed out that this reminds him of Jace Beleren, and I really liked that comparison. Dovin is to token generation effects what Jace Beleren is to draw effects. It ticks down a few times before having to tick back up for more loyalty. And with multiple attackers, the {+} ability makes a LOT of loyalty. In testing, the {+} ability has been insanely powerful with Dovin is drawn late. I cast this on T4 after a Spectral Procession, and the {+} ability increased him by 4 loyalty, which set him up for an immediate ultimate on the following turn. And let me tell you, that ultimate is easier to climb to than it looks, and it completely devastating. It’s the best card-draw effect I can think of that I’ve seen in the cube to date. Dovin has also been great when played early, even on an empty board. He creates evasive bodies, and also gives you a little Wrath protection because it diversifies your threat types. It can be hard for the opponent to race him since counter-attacking Dovin’s loyalty leaves them vulnerable to my attacking creatures on the following turn. The sub game of keeping Dovin under the draw-ultimate range while also keeping blockers available to stave off my aggressive creatures is a tough one for the opponent to manage. It’s quite scary, and has proven to be quite formidable in testing so far. Good in tempo decks with lots of attacking creatures, good in token decks with anthems and Oppositions floating around, and even good in artifact decks with lots of Thopter generation and Retrofitter Foundry about. I’ve been really impressed with Dovin, and he’s quickly risen to the top of my 3cc Azorius tempo support card of choice.
What I Don't Like: It has to go into decks that either need the tokens or can provide early pressure. He’s reliant on those interactions to really shine, so he’s not great in conventional WU control decks.
Verdict: I have Dovin in as my #4 Azorius card right now, and he’s doing quite well. If you play WU tempo decks or Esper/Jeskai/Bant token shells, I recommend trying him out immediately. If you play both WU tempo AND Azorius-colored token decks, Dovin is a slam dunk. I think it’s a 450-540 caliber card right now, and the only reason it’s not higher is because of the insane competition in WU.
What I Like: Well, if it’s a 2-power 1-drop that can recur itself from the graveyard, I’m in. But Gutterbones is particularly unique because it can return itself to your hand. Which is extra sweet when paired with discard outlets like Pack Rat and Liliana of the Veil, and makes it more dynamic than a creature that simply returns to the battlefield. If you play black aggro, it’s obviously good. If you play discard/sacrifice/recursion decks with Braids and Smokestack, it’ll be better. If you’re all in on an aristocrats package, it’s also very playable there too. It has a little something for everyone. Plus, it’s an aggro warrior for Najeela!
What I Don't Like: I wish it was a zombie warrior instead, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Verdict: Whether you play Stax, aristocrats or conventional black aggro, this is a slam-dunk include for your cube. Even in the smallest of cubes, most configurations are set up to take advantage of his body and abilities. I would play this at 360 unless your black section doesn’t support any of the strategies he shines in.
Thanks for reading! Please leave comments below so we can discuss RNA and the cube!
Great article as always! Always look forward to reading them.
I've been really liking Dovin Baan as well.. A relatively new cuber to the group drafted a UW opposition deck that performed pretty well, with dovin looking incredible in. I've liked opposition in UW, but always felt it was a couple on curve enablers short of being good enough to be drafted consistently. The deck finally looked like a build around-able archetype as opposed to a bunch of white creatures with opposition in it.
I love when cards are generically playable, but synergies push them over the top to be great and that feels like dovin to me!
Ya, I agree about Dovin. Good card, but some of the interactions are really strong, and that pushes it over the edge for me. I've been really impressed.
My gut tells me they meant Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. I get Teferi and Venser confused all the time, I figure it happens to others, too. It was probably a sneaky way of getting you to unpack the rest of your UW power rankings, since you said Dovin was #4.
Anyway, nice writeup! I'll second Fredo's surprise at the #2 card here, since you always seem to be really tough on gold cards in your evaluations. I guess it's time to give it a whirl.
My only disagreement is that Thoughtseize should have made the list
Love the (p)review. RAL has many good cards for specific archtypes, and few will go into cubes because quite simply, the competition is fierce. (A good thing)
I really want Biongenic Ooze to work in 450 but Verdurous Gearhulk is simply more explosive. Though I can imagine trying it someday.
Gutterbones and Spawn of Mayhem are so good, there is nothing to discuss there. Together with Doom whisperer I am very happy for black this batch of upgrades
Dovin is in my radar for artifact cube, with the plothera of tokens/thopters in white/blue/artifact. But I never thought it to crack the top 2 in regular cube! I am quite skeptical if my playgroup see the WU tempo angle. I always view tempo as an advanced deck construction technique, where the advantages are incremental, not too obvious and there are not too mane fun interactions. I think Dovin here can be a good signpost for the archtype. I will try him over Venser but I can imagine switching back because of Venser’s ever increasing interactions.
At ~1600 low-power, here are the cards I'm not interested in and why:
Sphinx of Foresight: I feel as you said. I don't like cards whose value is contingent on when they are drawn. Electrodominance: I like my suite of red X spells. I don't think I want this one. I don't see Quicken as a particularly cubeable card (though I may be wrong about that), and XRR spells have constantly underperformed for me. Biogenic Ooze: I don't like overpushed creatures, and Whisperwood Elemental always seemed like that to me. This is largely considered better, so I'm fine leaving it out. If I open it, I may add it anyway, though... Spawn of Mayhem: This is all the stuff I hate in overpushed creatures. It's not as ghastly an offender as Doom Whisperer, but it's not a card I'm interested in. Dovin, Grand Arbiter: The other thing I don't like is overpushed planeswalkers. I don't like Teferi either. I'm much happier with Venser.
You make a solid case for Lavinia and Cindervines that makes me consider them more fully. I don't love Lavinia, but some of my player-group are very hot on hate-bears. I'm considering running Rhythm of the Wild alongside Fires of Yavimaya. Honestly, I always like Fires, but I never really thought of it as an archetype before joining this forum. RG, big creatures, haste, it just seemed like a logical fit.
Enjoy your reviews, as always. It's always nice to know how much thought you're giving these cards, and I find it really helpful for my own evaluation.
Plus, whenever my thoughts line up with yours, I get to flex my arm and let out a guttural "YUS"
I think Teferi is a bit stronger than this guy. But if you did indeed mean Venser, I'm pretty sure I'm like the only person who still had him around (mostly was sentimental reasons). Venser has zero innate value or defenses, very hard card to justify.
I only run one walker per guild. I have Venser now, but I plan to replace him with Teferi who is leagues better than Dovin so that rules him out.
Biogenic Ooze has a lot of great interactions, but Kalonian Hydra hits harder and faster. If your opponent has instant speed removal Ooze leaves you with a 2/2, Sorcery speed and Ooze leaves you with a 3/3. Clearly the Floor on Ooze is better. Ooze looks like it takes forever to build to a critical mass though, it has no evasion to help get through, and usually requires continued investment to be able to swing games. Hydra asks that you turn it sideways. That's it. Ooze is clearly the more skill intenstive/interactive card but that doesn't make it better. I think the raw "Timmy" power of Kalonian Hydra still wins in a this vs. that between the two. If I think Hydra beats out Ooze by a fair bit then Gearhulk beats ooze hands down.
I really want to make room for End-Raze Forerunners....I just already have 4 7cc+ Green creatures Hornet Queen, Terastodon, Craterhoof, and Primus. I wonder if Tooth and Nail might be a cut or even Woodfall Primus. I know suggesting cutting the Primus is nearly sacrilege here but how good is it in nonpowered with no swords and no fast mana?
Well, Hydra beats Ooze in offensive firepower, but it's worse vs removal, worse on defense and has fewer meaningful interactions. I think it's certainly possible for Ooze to land somewhere between Gearhulk and Hydra (that's where I place it myself) ...or perhaps even ahead of both, depending on how you evaluate the 'Hulk. I wouldn't get too hung up on the additional mana investment part of the Ooze. If it's sticking around long enough to worry about sinking mana into it, it's going to win you the game.
I wouldn't cut T&N or Primus for Forerunners. Swords and Power have little to no impact on Primus's value. I might test Forerunners over Terastodon though, if you play decks where a pseudo-Hoof will be a bomb for you.
Cheers for this as always. Set is shallow for us, as tends to be the case when sets largely focus on the multicolour stuff.
Gutterbones and Spawn of Mayhem are definite includes. I hope that the conversation around black aggro shifts away from "IF you support black aggro" at some point. I've been championing it for years, but at this time it's just alien to me, like suggesting cutting green ramp or white aggro or blue control. The win % of black aggro decks is above white ones and within a percentage point of red for me, the super good recursive 2 power 1-drops being a massive help to R/x aggro, since R 1-drops are lacklustre in depth.
Gravecrawler is looking more questionable over time owing to the low number of Zombies, but Tormented Hero is the cut for now I think. I'm not yet sure on a cut for Spawn, but he is definitely getting a run. It's a very fast evasive clock for a three drop (which it should generally be)
Although I plan to test it, I'm really not sold on B.ooze vs. Whisperwood, which has been good in its second stint. Booze goes potentially wider and can make >1 creature a turn, potentially. However the additional cost of 1GGG compared to 0 for Whisperwood is certainly a thing. The Manifest ability to potentially upgrade a creature is hard to quantify but certainly non-negligible. The thing that may in the long run keep Whisperwood in my cube over Booze is the form of Wrath protection, which is something that midrange is pretty happy to play out. I also like the 4 base toughness off the bat for Whisperwood, which we know is a good threshold to have in the cube. In fact though, I think both cards are only 'good' and not 'great'. I dunno, the comparison is not all that straightforward. I'm happy to be wrong on this point if B.ooze just tests amazingly well.
I may include Rix Maadi Reveler in red. I think he gets there. My red has a light graveyard/discard theme, and tossing a couple Cities/black sources to enable the Spectacle mode (which is phenomenal in testing, btw) shouldn't ever be out the realms of possibility.
I also like Dovin, more so after reading your analysis. I may test over Spell Queller, as he can go into the tempo decks too.
I also love black aggro, and it's not going anywhere for me. We also have huge success with the archetype (just won a draft with it the other day) and we draft it constantly.
I really think the Ooze is significantly better than Whisperwood, but I guess time will tell. I'm not a fan of Whisperwood to begin with, so I guess that's part of the problem. It's easier to let go of cards you don't play/like. But I'm pretty stoked for Ooze. I think interactions and synergies are what make/break random midrange monsters in the modern cube era, and the Ooze interacts with a lot of cube stuff.
If you need to splash black sources for the Reveler to make it worthwhile, it's not really a red card. It's a good card, but it's a card.
I think Dovin has risen to the top of the 3cc tempo support cards. At least in my estimation.
Great article, as always. Your Dovin analysis intrigued me. You seriously think it's a better tempo card than Spell Queller AND Reflector Mage???! High praise.
I'm loathe to run more than 1 walker in any given guild section, but Dovin and Teferi fill such different roles I may test it out. I also love the idea of boosting Opposition decks with on-color support.
Ya, I like it more than those two cards. But I already liked Geist more than those two cards anyways. Dovin will be replacing Geist for me. He's been really good in testing thus far. And yes, he's very different from Teferi.
I'm affected by the shutdown, so I'm not buying any RNA for now. When this mess is resolved and I'm able to, it looks like your list coincides a lot with the cards I'm interested in.
This is my 28th 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.
Part two of the new RTRTR block, Ravnica Allegiance focuses on the 5 guilds that weren’t covered in Guilds of Ravnica. It’s a fun set, and it’s full of flavor wins …as well as a few cube goodies along the way. It wasn’t the powerhouse set for some of the guilds I wanted it to be, but it has a few nice surprises that will make a lot of cube managers happy.
Without further ado, I can start the countdown!
Prime Speaker Vannifar
A Birthing Pod support card!
What I Like: One of the biggest problems with Pod decks in the cube is that the deck is limited to only one copy of its namesake card. Prime Speaker Vannifar provides an additional copy of the effect to help with deck consistency, and she happens to be tutored up by all the creature tutoring effects that Pod decks love to run. PSV can really help the deck by adding a redundant effect into the archetype.
What I Don't Like: Unlike Birthing Pod itself, PSV is harder to cast, more fragile, and slower. I had a hard time with Pod decks when I’ve cubed them before. Partly because of the consistency issues, but also because it can be a bit too slow and grindy against explosive decks. While PSV fixes the first issue, it doesn’t do anything to correct the second one.
Verdict: I don’t think the new Prime Speaker is suddenly going to make Pod a great cube archetype for folks that don’t play it now, but if you enjoy Pod strategies already, she’ll make a great pickup that’ll be immediately useful for your playgroup. Especially considering that the competition in the Simic section isn’t stellar.
Rhythm of the Wild
A Fires archetype support card!
What I Like: Fires effects can be powerful if you dedicate the slots to support the archetype. Rhythm is a much more flexible version of this effect, since Riot gives you the option of adding +1/+1 counters in matchups/situations where the haste isn’t impactful. It also happens to make all your critters uncounterable in matchups where that’s relevant. Additionally, fellow cube enthusiast ryansaxe has pointed out on multiple platforms that Rhythm can help support the persist combo as well, so if you’re playing a +1/+1 counters matters combo, you can add Rhythm to your toolbox for extra redundancy.
What I Don't Like: Unlike some of the other Fires effects, I can’t use Rhythm to bolster tokens. Which means that a lot of the insane Fires/Sarkhan curves that involve Deranged Hermits and Siege-Gang Commanders and other army-in-a-can monsters don’t work here. Especially for folks that are fully all-in on the Fires deck that play Saproling Burst and the like; they won’t be able to abuse Rhythm the same way. It’s probably closer to Lightning Greaves than Fires of Yavimaya (as was pointed out by alanyuan0408 here) because it provides some protection and some juice for singular big monsters rather than for armies of small ones.
Verdict: I don’t think this is going to make it on its own, and I don’t think it’s good enough to suddenly make supporting a Fires archetype worthwhile if you weren’t already doing so… But, if you currently play a Fires suite, this can be an interesting additional tool for that toolbox, and you can make the archetype support that much deeper.
Rix Maadi Reveler
An aggressive Rakdos rummager.
What I Like: A 2-mana 2/2 that rummages when it enters the battlefield is a pretty decent floor. It’s not far off from being cubeable as a red card with that baseline, though it probably just falls short. What makes this card interesting for cubes is the ceiling it has with the Spectacle mode. Dumping your hand with an aggro deck is relatively easy, and the Reveler can help refill your hand with gas after getting yourself hellbent. 4 mana for a 2/2 that draws 3 cards is a pretty insane ceiling. Most often, it’ll probably net 1-2 extra cards in Spectacle mode, which will make it more akin to like a 4cc Rakdos Mulldrifter. And we could do worse than that.
What I Don't Like: When you can’t turn on Spectacle, the floor is just too mediocre for a card that takes up a guild slot. This card runs hot when things are going well, but turns suboptimal pretty easily if you get behind and have problems pushing damage through.
Verdict: The competition in BR is relatively steep in small- to medium-sized cubes, and I don’t think the effect is needed enough or unique enough to push out any of the cards I currently play. But if I had a few more slots available I would definitely want to give this some extended testing. It might be worthwhile for larger cubes in the 720+ range.
Sphinx of Foresight
A good 4cc scrying threat.
What I Like: When this card is in your opening hand, it’s bonkers good. Getting a free Scry 3 attached to your keep allows you to sculpt a good curve or potentially avoid a catastrophe. Having that upside strapped to a 4/4 flying body for 4 mana is good, especially with the additional late-game scry it can provide too.
What I Don't Like: When this card isn’t in your opening hand, it’s pretty mediocre. A 4/4 flying creature for 4 mana is an okay rate, but it’s nothing special in this era. The additional scry triggers are nice and all, but without the initial scry 3 trigger I just don’t think it gets there.
Verdict: I don’t think this competes against the top 4-drops in blue, but larger cubes may have some room to explore the Sphinx’s potential. I have a personal disliking for cards with this kind of variance; I don’t much care for Miracle spells, and this card has similar boosts in powerlevel that are contingent on when the card is drawn. I think in a 720+ card cube that has a free 4cc creature slot to explore other options with might enjoy testing Sphinx, but I don’t think this breaks into tighter lists.
Incubation Druid
A spicy ramp creature.
What I Like: The floor of being an 0/2 Reflecting Pool for 2-mana isn’t great, but 2cc ramp is always still a reasonable play. It can help fix for double-color costed spells in the curve, and later on, it can be Adapted into a Gilded Lotus of sorts. Once it levels up (which it can do on T4 thanks to its own ramp) you can reasonably play 8cc cards on T5 with only this creature doing any of the ramping. Plus, it’s a 3/5 body at that point, which isn’t nothing.
What I Don't Like: Unlike 2cc cards that truly fix your mana, this can’t help you cast spells for colors you’re missing. It’s also quite fragile. As an 0/2 it does basically nothing on the board (other than ramp, of course) and You have to sink 5 more mana into it before it does something really worthwhile. That can be risky, because removal in response to a 5cc activation can be a nasty blowout.
Verdict: I wouldn’t remove any of the common 2cc ramp creatures for this because I think it falls short of replacing any of them outright. But with some help (like perhaps a +1/+1 counters matter theme or something) it can be a very appealing card for some cubes. At face value, it’s probably worth testing at 720+. But if you can turn this into a Gilded Lotus by dropping random +1/+1 counters on it in multiple other ways? …those cubes might be interested in this regardless of what size they are.
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
A pretty savage hate-bear.
What I Like: There are some strategies that get completely hosed by Lavinia, and she shuts off several powerful spells in the cube. Basically, her first clause turns off Delve spells and non-creature ramp targets. If the opponent’s deck is planning on playing mana rocks into big planeswalkers and spells, Lavinia just says no. Plus she’ll randomly turn off Force of Wills and Snuff Outs and the like. Against the right deck, you can just completely prevent the opponent from doing anything productive.
What I Don't Like: The noncreature clause is a killer for my playgroup. A lot of the big mana ramp decks that are hardcasting expensive cards off mana rocks are doing so by casting creatures to end the game. And Lavinia doesn’t stop that. If the Channel target is Ugin, she’s gold. But if it’s Ulamog, Lavinia hasn’t done anything. She can shut off Tooth and Nail, but not Craterhoof. The disruption she provides is going to be far more random in our format than in someplace like Vintage or Legacy where she might be a complete bomb.
Verdict: If you enjoy the hate-bear cards that are just broken in certain windows/matchups, Lavinia might just be for you. If you support a lot of spell-based combo decks that cast big mana spells off land-doubling effects and mana rocks, Lavinia might just be the stone nuts for your group. We don’t play those kinds of decks here, so she’s not going to be nearly as back-breaking as she might be for others. But if you play spell-focused combo decks, Lavinia might definitely be worth a close look.
Electrodominance
A spicy red Quicken effect.
What I Like: This is basically a red Quicken that exchanges the one mana Cantrip for a Volcanic Geyser. And you can always overpay to get more damage than the casting cost of the spell. But it allows you to play powerful sorcery-speed effects as instants, and basically strap a free X spell on for your troubles. There are some powerful interactions like Ancestral Vision where you can really break the effect, but in most cases you’ll have to cause your blowouts the old fashioned way by flashing in ETB monsters in the middle of combat and the like.
What I Don't Like: Like LucidVision mentioned in the SCD, I too am skeptical of these kinds of effects because I played a lot of the recent Expertise cycle and none of them really stuck. There were too many inconsistencies where I had a card I couldn’t cast/didn’t need in my hand paired with the enabling effect, and the baseline effect was so underpowered at face value that I felt underwhelmed at the end of the exchange. Since Electrodominance’s cost is going to be 2cmc higher (at a minimum) than the “free” spell you cast, most of the high-impact plays would’ve been put out there on curve.
Verdict: Ultimately I think this is going to be a much spicier card for constructed than it will be for our format. Most of the plays will likely be too fair, and unless you’re running a lot of the free suspend spells, it might not quite be enough. But I’m not willing to write it off completely. Instant-speed X-damage spells will provide a decent baseline, and getting to blast something for 4 and put out a good 4cc spell will still be a very powerful play. May be worth some extended testing at 630-720 or so.
Pteramander
A new Delver variant.
What I Like: If you play Delver strategies in the cube (spell-heavy tempo decks in Izzet/Jeskai) keep a close eye on the new salamander drake. It resolves as a flying men, but mid-game it can bolster itself into a formidable creature. It reminds me a bit of something like Tombstalker; ultimately I’ll invest a small to medium amount of mana, and I’ll wind up with a 5/5 flying creature. But unlike the Delve effects that are similar, this critter doesn’t “eat” them as a resource. If it gets bounced or tucked, I can just as easily get it back to full force on the battlefield again.
What I Don't Like: 7 instants/sorceries is a huge ask in this format, so it being a 2-mana 5/5 is going to be pretty darn rare. The creature doesn’t become really “good” until you can activate it for 3-mana or less, so it functions as a 4-mana 5/5 flyer whose cost can be paid over two mana installments. That means you need at least 4 spells in your graveyard. It’s doable, but it’s not exactly easy.
Verdict: I expect this to be a good constructed card. And if spell-heavy tempo decks are your cup of tea, this will probably slot in quite nicely right next to your Delver of Secrets. I would expect most larger cubes in the 630-720 range to be supporting some kind of dedicated tempo strategy, and this will fit right in there. But this may find a home in smaller cubes too if you’re a fan of these kinds of decks.
Light Up the Stage
An aggro card draw spell.
What I Like: The ceiling on this card is great. As long as you can push damage through for free or on the cheap, this will often function like a red draw-two for one mana. You can play lands off the spell, and you can play cards until the end of your next turn, so it’s pretty hard to fail to generate card advantage off this spell as long as the deck has a low enough curve and you have the ability to deal damage. KMAYER made the comparison to something like Thoughtcast, and the comparison is pretty apt. A 1-mana draw-2 in the right deck, and largely uncastable in other situations.
What I Don't Like: The bad Divination is a rough floor, and decks that have stabilized against your pressure can effectively turn it off. Additionally, if you support a lot of different red decks, like I do, there are several builds that simply can’t use LUtS because they can’t reliably provide cheap early pressure to enable the Spectacle cost.
Verdict: This is another card that will likely be better in constructed than in cube, but if turning red creatures sideways is the bulk of red’s identity in your cube, the card certainly has potential. Worth testing, but I expect the card to settle somewhere in the 630-720 range.
Ravager Wurm
A big flexible Gruul monster.
What I Like: This creature is a lot of different guys in one. Since it has two different ETB modes and two different body sizes to choose from, it can be a very flexible monster. There are quite a few lands that can be destroyed by his trigger, and the fight is a powerful keyword in a lot of situations. Fight + haste on a 4-power guy is strong when you’re the beatdown, and a 5/6 body + fight is good on defense. A 4/5 haste that blows up Karakas, Azcanta or Maze of Ith is a good aggressive play, and a 5/6 blocker that blows up a manland is good when you’re on your heels. It does a lot of things, and it functions well in pretty much every game quadrant.
What I Don't Like: Gruul sections might not have room for a 2nd big monster, and Dragonlord Atarka is just too strong in similar roles to cut for this.
Verdict: Gruul midrange’s top-end has good cards to choose from, but it’s not loaded at the 6cc slot. Ravager Wurm can fill that curve gap a bit for larger cubes, and if I had room for 6 or so cards per guild, I’d want to give the Wurm a chance to compete in one of those slots. I think 630-720 is probably about the right range for this guy.
Judith, the Scourge Diva
The aristocrats queen.
What I Like: In decks engineered around cheap creatures that will flip themselves in and out of play often that generate a lot of bodies and sacrifice them for value (aristocrats decks) Judith is going to be a bomb. The +1/+0 will matter for turning your small creatures into threats that can deal significant amounts of damage, and combining that with the damage trigger, even small creatures can trade up in big ways. 1/1 creatures can trade with X/3 creatures in combat, and the additional power and the additional reach can add up in big ways. LucidVision has had a surprising amount of success with Judith in testing because of how her two abilities compound into a threatening combination against even congested boards. She plays well in aggro, but plays even better when combined with all the other tools the aristocrats deck uses to gain value out of sacrifice effects, and she’ll naturally slot into an existing archetype if you support those kinds of decks.
What I Don't Like: She’s limited to Rakdos decks that are applying pressure with cheap creatures and/or are taking advantage of a sacrifice theme. If you play lots of different archetypes within Rakdos (like Wildfire decks, BR control, Sneak/Reanimator strategies and the like) she won’t be able to contribute in the same way that other BR options can.
Verdict: Absolutely good enough for Rakdos aggro decks. Becomes a snap-include for cube managers that support an aristocrats package. I think at face value she can easily earn a slot as the 5th or 6th Rakdos card, making her an easy card to include for 630-720 card cubes. But if you support a Rakdos aristocrats theme, you should probably play her at any size cube.
Tithe Taker
A disruptive aggro beater.
What I Like: Tithe Taker has a good baseline rate. It’s a 2-power creature for 2 mana with a splashable cost, that generates a 2nd evasive body once it dies. On those metrics alone, it will play well in aggressive strategies that play equipment, since if the opponent sweeps the board away on their turn, you can immediately equip and attack with an evasive creature on the next turn. And while the disruption isn’t as powerful as something like Thalia, it still interrupts a lot of plays which can cause problems for the opponent’s curve. It can often force the opponent to play their spells at sorcery-speed, which limits their effectiveness, and it increases the value of your disruption effects like Mana Tithe, Force Spike and Daze. It obviously taxes countermagic, but it’s also good against instant-speed removal, flash creatures and powerful activated abilities that the opponent might be relying on using at instant-speed to execute their gameplan effectively.
What I Don't Like: Some decks simply won’t care about the disruption, and the 2/1 body is rather anemic on its own if the opponent is just curving out with good midrange monsters. Since aggro decks have the hardest time with those kinds of decks, Tithe Taker doesn’t shine in the matchups you need the most help with.
Verdict: If you support a hate-bears strategy (and that’s the way you prefer to draft aggro) this creature will be an easy inclusion …even at smaller cube sizes. But if your cube has a healthy amount of midrange play, Tithe Taker may just miss the cut. I think I would be able to find room for this creature at 630, but based on my current cube metagame it just misses for inclusion at 540.
Cindervines
An interesting Seal of Destructive Revelry.
What I Like: First off, this allows aggressive Gruul decks to easily maindeck artifact and enchantment hate without having to include cards that don’t pressure the opponent. It will often play out like a Seal of Cleansing that applies a bit of incidental pressure while you’re waiting for a prime target to destroy with it. If you support storm combo or other archetypes that chain several non-creature cards together to execute their gameplan, the front half of Cindervines will provide more value for you than normal. And if you’re looking for a good maindeckable Naturalize effect for RG, Cindervines is that too. For unpowered cubes, this is probably a better option than something like Ancient Grudge or Tin-Street Hooligan, which rely on having an early target to be great.
What I Don't Like: 3 mana for a Naturalize and a Shock to the face is fine, but not amazing in this format. Some decks don’t care about the front half of Cindervines, so it won’t do much for you other than being an expensive Smash to Smithereens. There are lots of matchups where this would be better off as a cheaper Naturalize (against powerful starts in powered cubes) or an effect that’s strapped to a body (so you can build your board while disrupting the opponent in a traditional unpowered matchup).
Verdict: If the front half of Cindervines is appealing because the damage triggers add up against powerful storm strategies, this is a decent replacement for whatever Shatter variant you might be playing in Gruul. I would play this in unpowered lists maybe 540-630 in size, and in powered cubes where Storm is a thing. But for me, something like Grudge or Hooligan is better on average because my powered cube presents early artifacts too often to wait until T3 to pop them. Even so, there’s a chance that the incidental damage (off both modes of the card) and the extra enchantment hate is enough to make it better than Grudge or Hooligan when the games run longer or an early target isn’t available.
Bedevil
An enhanced Rakdos Hero’s Downfall.
What I Like: I really like Downfall in the cube, and if my deck has the black sources to cast that card and also has access to red mana too, Bedevil is just a good card. The ability to hit every artifact in the cube in addition to already hitting every creature and every planeswalker makes this a very powerful and flexible removal spell; especially at instant speed. If your deck can support the mana cost, it makes it very hard to argue against including this in your final 40, which makes it a good flexible use of a guild slot.
What I Don't Like: Rakdos has effects similar to this already available to it. This is certainly no Kolaghan’s Command, and I’m not sure if this is better than Dreadbore. It has the advantage of hitting artifacts and being an instant, but the 2nd black mana in the cost makes it less splashable when black is the secondary color, and it can’t be used to answer a really early threat if you wind up waiting for the 2nd black. A lot of Rakdos decks like Dreadbore because it’s both cheap and has easy mana, making it easy to squeeze into a turn where you want to make two plays. Bedevil will be harder to do that with.
Verdict: I think this is a good card, and at face value, it can easily be the 4th or 5th best Rakdos card. But since some slots are going to be consumed by archetype support cards and there’s only so many generic removal spells that players like to include in their guild sections, it might prevent Bedevil from seeing the amount of cube play it probably should. If you elect to include it, the card will be good. But it can be an easy card to pass on because it has a relatively generic effect that can be found in your existing suite of cards. I would play this card if I had one more Rakdos slot available, which makes it a 630 card for me, but playing this at 540 or even 450 might certainly be right for a lot of playgroups.
Kaya’s Wrath
A true 4cc Orzhov Wrath effect.
What I Like: 4cc cards that unconditionally kill every creature are rare. In fact, there are only 4 of them out there that have ever been made, and they’re all commonly cubed cards. This effect is limited to Orzhov exclusive decks because of the restrictive mana cost, but if you play a lot WB control (like I do) this card has a high ceiling and is one of the most effective sweepers available for the cost. I reached out the the math wizard himself, Mr. Frank Karsten, when I first started contemplating Kaya’s Wrath for the cube. I was deeply concerned with the AABB mana cost, and wanted to know the math behind its castability woes. It turns out that in a deck with 10 sources of white and 10 sources of black (mana demand that I would consider a minimum for 4cc double-colored spells) Kaya’s Wrath is about 12% harder to cast. A deck with that mana can cast something like Day of Judgement off its first 4 mana sources about 89% of the time, and may only be able to cast Kaya’s Wrath about 77% of the time. This is certainly a statistically significant difference, and I’m not trying to say it’s not. But, the ceiling on true 4cc wrath effects is so high that I wanted to give the spell a chance to prove its worth, and see how often the mana cost prohibits me from casting it on curve. So far in testing it has played quite well …but those of you that know how I draft know how much emphasis I put on mana when drafting. Decks meeting true mana demand minimums can have issues with the card. If you’re under a 10/10 manabase, you can’t really play it. But for a deck that has an insane 13/12 manabase or something can cast it without any issues at all. I found when drafting Orzhov control that mana is simply an issue for that color combination, and it always has been. There are a lot of good double-colored 3- and 4-casting cost cards that require a lot of colored mana sources to cast. In practice, this means that my Orzhov decks are already prepared for a card like Kaya’s Wrath, since my 12/12 manabases I’m drafting to cast my difficult costed 3-drops are already ready to cast something like Kaya’s Wrath on curve well over 80% of the time. If you read my article on mana demands in the cube, you know that I consider 75% castability to be “reliable” for the sake of a volatile format like cube. Which means that even with minimum mana demands and a 10/10 manabase, this card is reliably castable on curve. This is much easier to do with an 18-land Orzhov control deck than it might be for a 15-land Boros aggro deck, which is why this spell is so much more playable than an AABB-costed spell would be for most other decks. The spell really has to be worth it in order to justify a difficult cost like that, and the 4cc true wrath aspect of this card is just enough to push me into trying it out. The lifegain will occasionally be a nice free upside when it takes down a random Wall of Omens or Solem Simulacrum you have in play down with it, but it’s really not the reason why the card is good. White and black have access to good sweepers already, but if you often use those cards for dedicated WB control decks, you might be able to trim one of the lesser sweepers from one of the two colors and squeeze Kaya’s Wrath in for testing. In decks that can cast it, it’s going to be better than the fringe options that don’t kill every creature or cost more mana.
What I Don't Like: Well, the mana woes. It’s castable in dedicated Orzhov control with good mana, but it’s not a card that will be playable in Esper or Mardu control unless your mana is particularly bonkers (and the U or R splash is completely free). You have to watch out for colorless mana sources of any kind, and you really need the right manabase for the spell. If WB control isn’t a deck you draft, Kaya’s Wrath isn’t a card you’ll want or need. But that kinda goes without saying.
Verdict: If you play dedicated Orzhov control, I think this can crack into the top 4 WB cards, and get into cubes that are 450 or 540 in size. If you don’t play those kinds of decks, this isn’t a card for you. Easy as that.
End-Raze Forerunners
A team-pumping vigilant monster.
What I Like: Forerunners is kinda like a hybrid between Craterhoof Behemoth and something like Hellkite Overlord. Not as good as ‘Hoof in my go-wide elf/token Natural Order decks, and not as good as Woodfall Primus or the like in a reanimation build; but there’s value in the fact that Forerunners is playable in both. It makes for a reasonable backup target for ‘Hoof in decks where ‘Hoof is a stud, and it’s a decent enough thing to cheat onto the battlefield early if I’m reanimating stuff. Craterhoof might not even be playable in a true dedicated reanimation build, but Forerunners has been good in testing so far in that role. It turns my discard outlet creatures into formidable attackers the turn it resolves, and the big vigilant body keeps me safe on defense before I attack for lethal on the following turn. There are few hastey reanimator targets available, and this can put on a lot of pressure fast, even on its own. And even in ‘Hoof decks, in every instance where ‘Hoof wouldn’t immediately win the game, Forerunners is still valuable because the combination of vigilance + the better base body makes it something worth leaving around. I’ve been stuck in situations before where my opponent has swept the rest of my board away and ‘Hoof just doesn’t do enough in its own …Forerunners is still a big scary threat in those moments.
What I Don't Like: Most smaller cubes simply won’t have room for a backup copy of their primary plan. While there’s value for medium-sized cubes to have extra copies of big monsters floating around, it’s just not necessary for small cubes.
Verdict: I will be playing this at 540, and it’s been doing quite well in testing so far. I’m not sure if 450-card cubes are going to be able to find room for this though, and it might not be necessary in cubes smaller than mine anyways, despite being a darn-fine monster.
Biogenic Ooze
A board dominating 5-drop.
What I Like: Given time and a willingness to create more Oozes, Biogenic Ooze will completely take over a game in a way that few other 5-drops do. The most common comparison seems to be Whisperwood Elemental, but I like the Ooze quite a bit more. They both pass the turn to the opponent with 6 power and 2 threats, but as the game moves forward, the Ooze outgrows the Whisperwood in both size and board presence. If you create another Ooze the following turn, you’ll have 11 power across 3 bodies when you pass the turn, while Whisperwood will have made its 8th power. The turn after that, you’ll have 17 power and 4 bodies where the Elemental would’ve made its 10th. The oozes grow in size on their own, and by quantity if you sink the mana into it. It’s more mana intensive, but that doesn’t matter very much, considering that the game pretty much ends if they don’t answer the main Ooze body right away. Additionally, the Ooze is better against an immediate Go for the Throat or something, since it still generates a 2nd 2/2 Ooze as a base effect. More importantly, the Ooze is loaded with interactions too. It can be grabbed by both Recruiters. It can be targeted by Alesha and Reveillark. It’s better with blink and bounce interactions. It’s INSANE with clone effects because of how the multiple growth triggers stack on all the oozes. The other comparison is Kalonian Hydra because of the ability for it to attack for a ton over just a few turns. While the Hydra does outrace the Ooze for damage, it’s also worse (nonfunctional) on defense, and puts all your eggs in one basket vs targeted removal. Ooze is kinda the whole package. It is powerful on its own, often needs to be the last card you resolve in a game, has a built-in mana sink, and it’s loaded with interactions. It’s kinda like a big Pack Rat that exchanges going down on cards for costing more mana. Plus, there are a handful of other Oozes that get pumped by him too, which always makes things fun and interesting.
What I Don't Like: Between Hermit, Slime and Thragtusk, the 5cc green creature slot is stacked for small cubes already. And the Ooze is weak to cheap removal the turn it resolves.
Verdict: I think Ooze should easily push out the #5 green 5cc creature (whether that’s Hydra or Whisperwood or whatever else) and be a slam dunk for 540 cubes. And there’s a decent chance it might be better than Verdurous Gearhulk and be worthwhile at 450. But I don’t think this can crack into 360 card cubes.
Spawn of Mayhem
The best Juzam variant for cubes.
What I Like: Well, this is essentially a 5-power flying 4-drop with two other redundant forms of evasion for pushing damage through that can also grow itself in power in the later stages of the game. And that’s at its floor. The ceiling on this card of only costing 3 mana is obviously insanely high, and most aggressive decks won’t have that hard of a time turning the Spectacle on. When this creature resolves for 3 mana, it’s a hell of a card …and in my playtesting experience with the card so far, that’s the vast majority of the time. And even at 4-mana, this is a good enough curve-topper that the card’s floor shouldn’t preclude you from playing it in your aggro decks.
What I Don't Like: Not much not to like if you support black aggro. If you have a disruption-heavy opening hand that can’t apply any life-total pressure the Spectacle might be harder than normal to trigger, but that’s being relatively picky for a card with the average performances I’ve seen from Spawn so far—the Spectacle has been reliable and it’s good even in the rare situations where it gets played for 4 mana.
Verdict: If you support conventional black aggro with 2-power 1-drops and the like, Spawn is an easy include, even for cubes all the way down to 360/450 in size. If you’ve scaled back the black aggro package, this probably can’t make it in the smallest of cubes though. And obviously, if you don’t play black aggro at all, this isn’t worth your time.
Dovin, Grand Arbiter
A tempo support ‘walker.
What I Like: I want to start off by saying that this is better than it looks. Even if you think it’s good, it’s probably better than you think it is. In the early game, it can set you up with evasive attackers while providing some incidental lifegain in the process. Our very own simpygdog pointed out that this reminds him of Jace Beleren, and I really liked that comparison. Dovin is to token generation effects what Jace Beleren is to draw effects. It ticks down a few times before having to tick back up for more loyalty. And with multiple attackers, the {+} ability makes a LOT of loyalty. In testing, the {+} ability has been insanely powerful with Dovin is drawn late. I cast this on T4 after a Spectral Procession, and the {+} ability increased him by 4 loyalty, which set him up for an immediate ultimate on the following turn. And let me tell you, that ultimate is easier to climb to than it looks, and it completely devastating. It’s the best card-draw effect I can think of that I’ve seen in the cube to date. Dovin has also been great when played early, even on an empty board. He creates evasive bodies, and also gives you a little Wrath protection because it diversifies your threat types. It can be hard for the opponent to race him since counter-attacking Dovin’s loyalty leaves them vulnerable to my attacking creatures on the following turn. The sub game of keeping Dovin under the draw-ultimate range while also keeping blockers available to stave off my aggressive creatures is a tough one for the opponent to manage. It’s quite scary, and has proven to be quite formidable in testing so far. Good in tempo decks with lots of attacking creatures, good in token decks with anthems and Oppositions floating around, and even good in artifact decks with lots of Thopter generation and Retrofitter Foundry about. I’ve been really impressed with Dovin, and he’s quickly risen to the top of my 3cc Azorius tempo support card of choice.
What I Don't Like: It has to go into decks that either need the tokens or can provide early pressure. He’s reliant on those interactions to really shine, so he’s not great in conventional WU control decks.
Verdict: I have Dovin in as my #4 Azorius card right now, and he’s doing quite well. If you play WU tempo decks or Esper/Jeskai/Bant token shells, I recommend trying him out immediately. If you play both WU tempo AND Azorius-colored token decks, Dovin is a slam dunk. I think it’s a 450-540 caliber card right now, and the only reason it’s not higher is because of the insane competition in WU.
Gutterbones
A recursive 2-power 1-drop.
What I Like: Well, if it’s a 2-power 1-drop that can recur itself from the graveyard, I’m in. But Gutterbones is particularly unique because it can return itself to your hand. Which is extra sweet when paired with discard outlets like Pack Rat and Liliana of the Veil, and makes it more dynamic than a creature that simply returns to the battlefield. If you play black aggro, it’s obviously good. If you play discard/sacrifice/recursion decks with Braids and Smokestack, it’ll be better. If you’re all in on an aristocrats package, it’s also very playable there too. It has a little something for everyone. Plus, it’s an aggro warrior for Najeela!
What I Don't Like: I wish it was a zombie warrior instead, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Verdict: Whether you play Stax, aristocrats or conventional black aggro, this is a slam-dunk include for your cube. Even in the smallest of cubes, most configurations are set up to take advantage of his body and abilities. I would play this at 360 unless your black section doesn’t support any of the strategies he shines in.
Thanks for reading! Please leave comments below so we can discuss RNA and the cube!
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!
I've been really liking Dovin Baan as well.. A relatively new cuber to the group drafted a UW opposition deck that performed pretty well, with dovin looking incredible in. I've liked opposition in UW, but always felt it was a couple on curve enablers short of being good enough to be drafted consistently. The deck finally looked like a build around-able archetype as opposed to a bunch of white creatures with opposition in it.
I love when cards are generically playable, but synergies push them over the top to be great and that feels like dovin to me!
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
Ya, I agree about Dovin. Good card, but some of the interactions are really strong, and that pushes it over the edge for me. I've been really impressed.
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 doing this!
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!
Which Venser? Venser, the Sojourner? Oh hell yes. I think has been too strong for that card for years 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!
Anyway, nice writeup! I'll second Fredo's surprise at the #2 card here, since you always seem to be really tough on gold cards in your evaluations. I guess it's time to give it a whirl.
My only disagreement is that Thoughtseize should have made the list
My Cube on Cube Tutor
Thanks for commenting!
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!
I really want Biongenic Ooze to work in 450 but Verdurous Gearhulk is simply more explosive. Though I can imagine trying it someday.
Gutterbones and Spawn of Mayhem are so good, there is nothing to discuss there. Together with Doom whisperer I am very happy for black this batch of upgrades
Dovin is in my radar for artifact cube, with the plothera of tokens/thopters in white/blue/artifact. But I never thought it to crack the top 2 in regular cube! I am quite skeptical if my playgroup see the WU tempo angle. I always view tempo as an advanced deck construction technique, where the advantages are incremental, not too obvious and there are not too mane fun interactions. I think Dovin here can be a good signpost for the archtype. I will try him over Venser but I can imagine switching back because of Venser’s ever increasing 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!
Sphinx of Foresight: I feel as you said. I don't like cards whose value is contingent on when they are drawn.
Electrodominance: I like my suite of red X spells. I don't think I want this one. I don't see Quicken as a particularly cubeable card (though I may be wrong about that), and XRR spells have constantly underperformed for me.
Biogenic Ooze: I don't like overpushed creatures, and Whisperwood Elemental always seemed like that to me. This is largely considered better, so I'm fine leaving it out. If I open it, I may add it anyway, though...
Spawn of Mayhem: This is all the stuff I hate in overpushed creatures. It's not as ghastly an offender as Doom Whisperer, but it's not a card I'm interested in.
Dovin, Grand Arbiter: The other thing I don't like is overpushed planeswalkers. I don't like Teferi either. I'm much happier with Venser.
You make a solid case for Lavinia and Cindervines that makes me consider them more fully. I don't love Lavinia, but some of my player-group are very hot on hate-bears. I'm considering running Rhythm of the Wild alongside Fires of Yavimaya. Honestly, I always like Fires, but I never really thought of it as an archetype before joining this forum. RG, big creatures, haste, it just seemed like a logical fit.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Thanks for sharing, 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!
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Plus, whenever my thoughts line up with yours, I get to flex my arm and let out a guttural "YUS"
I think Teferi is a bit stronger than this guy. But if you did indeed mean Venser, I'm pretty sure I'm like the only person who still had him around (mostly was sentimental reasons). Venser has zero innate value or defenses, very hard card to justify.
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!
I only run one walker per guild. I have Venser now, but I plan to replace him with Teferi who is leagues better than Dovin so that rules him out.
Biogenic Ooze has a lot of great interactions, but Kalonian Hydra hits harder and faster. If your opponent has instant speed removal Ooze leaves you with a 2/2, Sorcery speed and Ooze leaves you with a 3/3. Clearly the Floor on Ooze is better. Ooze looks like it takes forever to build to a critical mass though, it has no evasion to help get through, and usually requires continued investment to be able to swing games. Hydra asks that you turn it sideways. That's it. Ooze is clearly the more skill intenstive/interactive card but that doesn't make it better. I think the raw "Timmy" power of Kalonian Hydra still wins in a this vs. that between the two. If I think Hydra beats out Ooze by a fair bit then Gearhulk beats ooze hands down.
I really want to make room for End-Raze Forerunners....I just already have 4 7cc+ Green creatures Hornet Queen, Terastodon, Craterhoof, and Primus. I wonder if Tooth and Nail might be a cut or even Woodfall Primus. I know suggesting cutting the Primus is nearly sacrilege here but how good is it in nonpowered with no swords and no fast mana?
I wouldn't cut T&N or Primus for Forerunners. Swords and Power have little to no impact on Primus's value. I might test Forerunners over Terastodon though, if you play decks where a pseudo-Hoof will be a bomb for you.
Thanks for commenting!
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 High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
Gutterbones and Spawn of Mayhem are definite includes. I hope that the conversation around black aggro shifts away from "IF you support black aggro" at some point. I've been championing it for years, but at this time it's just alien to me, like suggesting cutting green ramp or white aggro or blue control. The win % of black aggro decks is above white ones and within a percentage point of red for me, the super good recursive 2 power 1-drops being a massive help to R/x aggro, since R 1-drops are lacklustre in depth.
Gravecrawler is looking more questionable over time owing to the low number of Zombies, but Tormented Hero is the cut for now I think. I'm not yet sure on a cut for Spawn, but he is definitely getting a run. It's a very fast evasive clock for a three drop (which it should generally be)
Although I plan to test it, I'm really not sold on B.ooze vs. Whisperwood, which has been good in its second stint. Booze goes potentially wider and can make >1 creature a turn, potentially. However the additional cost of 1GGG compared to 0 for Whisperwood is certainly a thing. The Manifest ability to potentially upgrade a creature is hard to quantify but certainly non-negligible. The thing that may in the long run keep Whisperwood in my cube over Booze is the form of Wrath protection, which is something that midrange is pretty happy to play out. I also like the 4 base toughness off the bat for Whisperwood, which we know is a good threshold to have in the cube. In fact though, I think both cards are only 'good' and not 'great'. I dunno, the comparison is not all that straightforward. I'm happy to be wrong on this point if B.ooze just tests amazingly well.
I may include Rix Maadi Reveler in red. I think he gets there. My red has a light graveyard/discard theme, and tossing a couple Cities/black sources to enable the Spectacle mode (which is phenomenal in testing, btw) shouldn't ever be out the realms of possibility.
I also like Dovin, more so after reading your analysis. I may test over Spell Queller, as he can go into the tempo decks too.
That's about it!
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I also love black aggro, and it's not going anywhere for me. We also have huge success with the archetype (just won a draft with it the other day) and we draft it constantly.
I really think the Ooze is significantly better than Whisperwood, but I guess time will tell. I'm not a fan of Whisperwood to begin with, so I guess that's part of the problem. It's easier to let go of cards you don't play/like. But I'm pretty stoked for Ooze. I think interactions and synergies are what make/break random midrange monsters in the modern cube era, and the Ooze interacts with a lot of cube stuff.
If you need to splash black sources for the Reveler to make it worthwhile, it's not really a red card. It's a good card, but it's a card.
I think Dovin has risen to the top of the 3cc tempo support cards. At least in my estimation.
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!
I'm loathe to run more than 1 walker in any given guild section, but Dovin and Teferi fill such different roles I may test it out. I also love the idea of boosting Opposition decks with on-color support.
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!
I'm affected by the shutdown, so I'm not buying any RNA for now. When this mess is resolved and I'm able to, it looks like your list coincides a lot with the cards I'm interested in.
My Eternal Cube on CubeTutor| |My Reject Rare Cube on CubeTutor| |My Peasant Cube on CubeTutor
I used to write for MTGS, including Cranial Insertion and cube articles. Good on you if you can find those after the upgrade.
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!