This is my 29th 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.
War of the Spark is a wild set. It’s loaded with planeswalkers, storyline cards, powerful cycles and a bunch of other cool stuff for us cubers to try out. They tried using a slower spoiler season for this set, and it made for dramatic reveals. The set started off slow, but got a lot better towards the end. It’s a good set for cubes, and while this list is limited to the 20 cards I thought would have the biggest immediate impact on lists, there are undoubtedly cards that aren’t on this Top 20 list that are still viable cube inclusions for your playgroup! I encourage everyone to go out and consume as much cube content as you can, since my list is only going to discuss 20 cards of a fun, flavorful and powerful set that you’re bound to find exciting cards in.
What I Like: Well, if you like Naturalize, you’re gonna want to play RtN. The additional upside seems marginal, but in the situations where it’s important to snipe cards out of the graveyard, it will have a big impact on the game. It’s probably just enough of a bump to make folks reconsider using this spell if they switched from Naturalize to cards like Deglamer and Unravel the Aether over it before.
What I Don't Like: Green has a lot of naturalize effects available to it in the cube, and the majority of them are tied into creature bodies. Which is an advantage for multiple reasons. First, it’s functional card advantage when it’s strapped to a creature, and second, there are lots of green cards that function well with creatures. Disenchant is a better white card than Naturalize is a green card, and I’m not sure that the anti-graveyard tech is enough to put it over the edge in comparison to the effects green currently plays that are attached to bodies.
Verdict: This doesn’t quite get there for me, yet, but my guess is that the additional anti-graveyard tech is going to push a fringe-playable card into something that more cubes should be using. If you can find room for Return to Nature, I’d try it out and see how often the upside comes into play for your playgroup. For me, it might be somewhere in the 630-720 range, but that can change dramatically from one playgroup to the next.
What I Like: A 2/3 body with a splashable 2-mana cost is a great baseline. Being a zombie is a nice additional benefit, and the ability can be powerful in situations where the game goes long. Any time you have an aggressive 2cc creature that can represent card advantage, it’s worth a closer look to see how it might play out. I like the fact that it can keep a stream of threats coming in situations where your deck may have otherwise run out of gas.
What I Don't Like: The only real complaint is the steep activation cost on the ability. 3 mana is a lot, and in decks looking to play attacking 2-drops, it may not be the kind of cost your deck is engineered to pay without losing a turn doing so. That, and the entering tapped clause prevents it from being a great defensive creature, so it gets further pigeonholed into the aggressive shells.
Verdict: I think this is a good creature, but it fell just outside of my cube range due to an unnatural attachment my playgroup and I have with a couple of the black 2-drops we play. But I would play this at 630+ myself, and there’s a good chance it should be included in cubes smaller than that too. Good body, splashable cost, card-advantage potential …it’s a recipe for a good cube creature.
What I Like: Ugin grows his loyalty by adding a 2/2 body to the table that essentially draws a card when it dies. That makes for a good defensive tactic because it further disincentivizes the opponent from attacking into them. And Ugin has a flexible {-3} ability that can deal with most any kind of permanent you need it to. And while the static ability won’t provide a huge benefit to every deck, there are certainly shells that will be able to use his -2 cost to colorless cards as an upside.
What I Don't Like: If I need to use it to destroy a threat, Ugin’s loyalty gets quite low; running him all the way down to 1 after a single activation. While that won’t be super relevant in the cases where you’re removing the only card that can realistically threaten him, it will be an issue against boards with multiple threats out. He can’t be used to destroy colorless threats, so if the opponent presents a powerful artifact or colorless card that just needs to be removed, Ugin can’t do it. And lastly, the static cost reduction ability is pretty narrow. There are a lot of cases where it simply won’t do anything at all outside of very specific draws.
Verdict: There’s certainly nothing wrong with this Ugin. He’s a good card in pretty much every respect. I couldn’t find a slot for him in my current colorless section, but if my cube was even a little bigger, I’d have an opening for Ugin to slot into. I’d play Ugin at 630+, but depending on how much you feel like the static ability will be used by your group, Ugin could certainly be playable down into smaller cube sizes.
What I Like: I originally wrote this off because it didn’t fit the mold for what I want my manlands to be doing. Typically, I want manlands to meet one of three criteria: 1) They fix my mana. Any manland that fixes mana I’m down with. 2) They attack for more than their activation cost. This allows me to make cost-effective attacks with the card when the opportunity is there. 3) The card attacks for at least 2 damage with evasion. This makes the manland a reliable win condition in the later board-stall stages of the game that doesn’t take an eternity to kill the opponent. Without fixing mana or having evasion, District was going to have to hurdle criteria #2. Originally I evaluated the card without accounting for the vigilance. But being untapped after attacking effectively reduces its activation cost by 1. Which means I’m tapping 4 lands to attack for 3, which still isn’t quite efficient enough. But the activated ability is reduced by both planeswalkers AND legendary creatures, and having even one of those kinds of cards in play makes the District a cost-effective attacker. There are a lot of legends and ‘walkers in the cube, so I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to think having one in play is too difficult. Some decks can pretty easily turn this into a reliably cheap-activating manland. And if the cost reduction reaches 2 or even 3? The card gets insanely good. If you can start activating this for cheap, you can be attacking and blocking with it in the same round. And attacking for 3 with a manland and only winding up having tapped 2 lands to do so is an insanely good rate. And not impossible for some decks to expect to reach.
What I Don't Like: The cost reduction is inconsistent. It’s not good enough without help on the battlefield, and in every situation where it’s activating for cheap and being an incredible card, it’ll be activating for 4 mana and being largely unplayable.
Verdict: If you can deal with the inconsistency issues, or have decks that your group commonly drafts that can consistently reduce District’s activation cost, it’s going to be a great land for you. For us, it just misses the cut below 630+, but there are probably groups that will want to play this in smaller cubes too. With one legend and one ‘walker in play, the land’s spectacular. And even with one target out, it’s quite serviceable. Probably worth extended testing to see how consistently the discount applies.
What I Like: The easiest comparison to make is the obvious one to FTK. Enter has +2 toughness on the body, mills for 4 and gains 4 life in comparison to the Kavu. The milling is meh, but the 2 additional toughness is relevant. The 4 life gain is really significant. For a slower, more controlling Dimir shell, being behind on life is really common. Getting a life buffer to help stabilize, killing a threat AND creating a 4/4 body is no joke. Being stapled to a spell gives it interactions with Jace, Snappy, Mystical Tutor (and others) within its colors too.
What I Don't Like: Losing the creature card type makes it harder to abuse than FTK. And being 2 colors with 3 colored mana symbols makes it far narrower. Plus, the competition in Dimir is steep. Also, the double-blue just feels off… with creature removal, a black zombie body, lifegain, the card feels more black than blue if anything, and since black has a shallow shelf of 5cc cards in the cube, it would’ve been nice if the non-black color was the splash.
Verdict: This isn’t quite good enough to start pushing out top-tier Dimir cards. But it’s easy to overlook this card because of how good the other options are. If this looks like a card your playgroup might be interested in testing, I recommend doing so, because I think the spell is really good, despite the insane competition. I think this competes well against the tier-2 Dimir cards, and if it looks appealing, don’t hesitate to test it. It might make the cut for me as the #6 Dimir card or so, which makes it a 630-720-ish kinda card probably. If you ‘re willing to give it a shot over other legitimately good cube cards, that is.
What I Like: Being able to surgically apply which edict mode is selected helps to reduce the number of choices the opponent actually has. Planeswalkers are so very often the only ‘walker in play that its controller controls that an ‘walker edict is going to be the same thing as a targeted removal spell for them 95+% of the time. In the early game, you should be able to use this to kill any lone creature or lone artifact. But as the game progresses, you won’t be able to shatter that Sword because the opponent can ditch a Signet. And you can’t kill their fresh bomb creature because they can sacrifice a cheaper critter. The flexibility will bring a lot of value to the card in comparison to things like Dreadbore and Terminate because this can kill artifacts and those can’t. And in comparison to something like Bedevil, Rampage only costs 2 mana and is splashable. So it’s somewhere in that mix. Not fundamentally better or worse than any of the other commonly played options.
What I Don't Like: Creature edicts usually have 2 advantages over the targeted removal options of the same type. The first is the ability to get around shroud/hexproof/protection and the like, since it doesn’t target. The second is that the spell has no targeting restrictions (they’re not limited to non-black or non-artifact targets, for example). Angrath’s Rampage loses that second upside because the spells that it’s being compared to (Dreadbore, Bedevil, Terminate, Etc) don’t have restrictions on what kinds of creatures they can kill. Which makes Rampage a worse creature edict in comparison to cards in its slot than cards like Diabolic Edict are to mono-black 2cc removal options.
Verdict: Hard to evaluate without seeing it in action. My gut tells me that it’s really close to both Dreadbore and Bedevil in terms of being quality Rakdos removal spells, but because there are no targeting restrictions on the removal spells it’s being compared to, I’m less willing to sidegrade into an edict effect here than I am in mono black. It could very well be playable at 540, or it might not be needed at all. It’s going to be very playgroup dependent, and it’s going to require a lot of reps to flesh out exactly where it’ll settle.
What I Like: Sarkhan comes down, makes a 4/4 dragon and immediately makes it harder for your opponent to pressure you or your planeswalkers. It effectively shuts off all 1-toughness attackers, and allows all your smaller bodies to trade up in combat. On subsequent turns, he turns himself into a dragon too, and allows you to bash for 8 with flying the turn after he resolves. It almost plays more like a 5cc Broodmate Dragon with built-in defenses than it does a traditional ‘walker. It’s important to note that the {+1} ability turns ALL your ‘walkers into dragons, so in a superfriends shell you can threaten a really fast clock with other planeswalkers in play. And the defensive trigger applies for each dragon. So if he ticks up into a 2nd token or you have another dragon in play somehow, the defensive ability gets out of control.
What I Don't Like: Great card on its own, but there just aren’t that many red decks I create in cubes that want to play this. It’s too slow as an aggro curve-topper without haste. It doesn’t interact well with Wildfires. It’s basically relegated to generic midrange decks, red control shells and Moat/Quake decks. Which is fine, but I’m looking for a little more flexibility out of my 5cc cards unless they’re specifically used to help enable a decktype.
Verdict: Good card, and one that I initially slept on a little bit. If you play decks that want this kind of card often, add it in. It’s really powerful. For us, it’ll ultimately be too narrow because I can’t use it in our most popular red builds. Easily good enough on its own for any cube size 540 or bigger as long as you’ll use it regularly, but just make sure that your playgroup has a home for him before tossing it into the cube.
What I Like: Well, a 5/6 menace that’s hard to permanently remove is a good baseline for 5 mana. Add on the ability to convert unneeded and outclassed permanents into fresh cards and you’ve got yourself a stew goin’. It’s surprisingly easy for decks to find a land or two they might not need, and maybe an extra mana rock, creature token or outclassed early-game body to sacrifice to Bontu when he resolves. When I was testing it, it was typically finding 2-3 cards to sacrifice, which made for a very powerful ETB trigger. Where he really shined though was in decks that were designed to bring these cards back. Loam/Crucible/Excavator shells could use Bontu to draw extra cards for little to no cost. Pairing him with Gravecrawlers and Bloodghasts and the like also made his drawback close to free, which made the trigger into pure card advantage. In those kinds of decks, he tested really well.
What I Don't Like: When I was testing him in decks that didn’t have ways to make his sacrifice effect into card advantage, the trigger was far more fair. When the sacrifice was actually a cost, it was only really beneficial when I was heavily flooded or I had an army of tokens that were being stonewalled. Wasn’t a great card for control or Wildfire decks because of the nature of his sacrifice effect being resource hungry.
Verdict: Great card for the sacrifice/recursion decks and Loam/Crucible packages. Solid card in other situations. Just a bit too narrow to make the cut in the current configuration of my 540. It’s a bit too late, as this card would’ve been a sight for sore eyes when black’s 5cc creature section was empty.
What I Like: It’s a good card for Gruul that’s not 4 mana! It’s a powerful package of effects for 3 mana. The +1/+0 anthem is a good static ability for go-wide aggressive decks and token decks. The {+1} ability provides good ramp and makes your midrange threats uncounterable. The {-2} fight trigger allows your oversized monsters to dominate smaller critters. All of his abilities are good.
What I Don't Like: Well, he does nothing on his own, and he can’t build up towards anything on his own either. If the opponent can keep your creatures off the board, Domri does literal nothing. And while all of his abilities are good effects for you, they seem to be pulling in different directions. The static ability is best suited for aggressive shells and go-wide builds. Which is the opposite kind of deck that wants the fight trigger, which is best suited for decks with powerful, oversized midrange bodies. And the middle ability is great for making my 4 and 5cc creatures uncounterable, but those bodies don’t care much about the 1 extra power.
Verdict: I would play this card myself if I had one extra slot in Gruul. But It just missed my 540 as is. But it is a good card, and I expect people to have success with it in this format.
What I Like: This looks to be black’s version of the 6cc Chandra and 6cc Elspeth that red and white have access to. Better in some instances and worse in others. First, Liliana has a powerful static ability; drawing a card whenever a creature dies is a very good line of text. And it works well with her {+1}. She resolves a 6 loyalty, can tick up to 7 while creating a blocker that can both trade off with an attacker and draw cards when it dies. That’s a tough uphill grind for the opponent to try to get through if they need to remove her. And her Barter in Blood trigger is a powerful effect for two reasons. First, it makes her quite effective at destroying boards with a small number of powerful threats on them. And second, her static ability really works towards making her Barter trigger asymmetrical. Your opponent loses quality creatures, and you either lose nothing, or draw up to 2 cards during the exchange. And she has an ultimate that’s very good. Liliana will prove to be a midrange breaker. Against medium-density decks with powerful individual threats, she’s going to be a complete bomb.
What I Don't Like: Both of the other 6cc control ‘walkers I use are good in scenarios where Liliana isn’t. They’re both good against swarm aggro and go-wide token decks. Those two decks are very popular in my cube. Elspeth creates 3 blockers to protect herself with, and Chandra can wipe boards against those strategies. Liliana’s biggest weakness is a strength shared by both Elspeth and Chandra. Secondly, Liliana is a painfully slow clock in comparison to those other cards. Elspeth creates 3 bodies a turn, creates 50% more power, and has an ultimate that in conjunction with her {+} ends the game on the spot most of the time. And Chandra produces 6 power of hastey threats… Chandra has attacked the opponent for 12 damage on the same turn when Liliana’s tokens have chipped in for their first 2.
Verdict: Liliana is a good ‘walker. Powerful synergistic abilities and she’s a silver bullet for threat-light builds. But her weakness to swarm aggro and token decks, and the slow nature of her clock caused some concerns with us during testing. I have her included for extended testing at 540 at the moment, but I'm not 100% sold on her as a permanent inclusion yet.
What I Like: Unlike other cards of its kind, Finale of Glory produces power and toughness at a very respectable rate. If you compare it to the good fixed-cost token producers that commonly see cube play, the power/cost ratio on Finale is decent. Starting with 4 mana, cards like Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Whirler Rogue make 4 power and multiple bodies …so does Finale. Cards like Angel of Invention and Cloudgoat Ranger make 6 power and multiple bodies for 5 mana …so does Finale. Broodmate Dragon makes 8 power and multiple bodies for 6 mana, and so does FoG. No matter where it gets played in the curve at 4+ mana, it’s going to generate a good amount of power and toughness for you, even at a rate comparable with fixed-price effects. And of course, when X=10, Finale produces 60 (SIXTY!) power worth of creatures. That’s completely absurd and wildly unprecedented. And it can occur on curve directly after Mirari’s Wake (which actually makes it 80 power). And no matter the value, the tokens all have vigilance which is a nice upside in decks anticipating a race.
What I Don't Like: Only specific decks are in the market for a scaleable token engine. W/x token/anthem decks and W/G ramp. Now both of those decks are popular in my group, but they’re not for everybody. And while the P/T created by Finale is above-average, it loses some upsides other cards of its kind have, like splashable costs, instant speed and token count.
Verdict: Card’s good but not great. If you support the decks that are interested in its efficient power/cost ratio while making multiple bodies (W/x token shells) and/or you play W/G super-ramp decks that can can potentially reach 12+ mana I suggest giving it a shot. It least until you’ve seen it create 60+ power once or twice. I play both of those decks in my playgroup, so the card appeals to me at 540. For other groups, it may land somewhere higher in the cube size value, or not be appealing at all.
What I Like: Arkbow does a lot of little things. It’s a repeatable cheap discard outlet for graveyard-centric decks. It has the ability to turn unneeded resources into potential uncounterable threats, and it can do so at instant speed. Every time a deck draws an extra land, dead utility card or lackluster card, you can spin the wheel and try to convert it into something valuable. When you’re able to hit, you just took a useless resource and turned it into something you can use. More importantly, Arkbow has a lot of synergy with cards that want to be in the graveyard. Loam decks with Loam or excess lands? Turn them into threats at no real cost. Graveyard recursion decks? Pitch that Blooodghast, turn it into another threat, and bring the ‘ghast back for free. You get the idea. It goes from decent to amazing in decks that can use the discard to their advantage. Don’t use it when you don’t need to; activate it when you truly have dead cards, and the effect can function like pure upside for you.
What I Don't Like: The card is only okay at face value. It can miss, so if the discarded card is a resource of any value, the risk is often not worth the reward. It’s going to be relegated to decks that can take advantage of the discarded cards, where it’ll be great. But it’s going to be 22nd-23rd playable at best in generic green decks.
Verdict: A lot of what I use green for in my cube involves graveyard utility. This card will be great in Loam decks, in reanimator decks, and in recursion decks. Not to mention that it has some backdoor utility in artifact.dec shells, where it’s both an artifact and can discard big targets to your Welders, Darettis and Feldons …and it can help justify that green splash for that Verdurous Gearhulk. I plan on testing this at 540 for some extended time because it’s a hard c ard to properly evaluate without reps, and I extensively play all of the archetypes that can have success with the card. For other groups, this can range from a staple to a complete miss depending on how your playgroup likes to play.
What I Like: The most obvious comparison we can draw from is Green Sun’s Zenith. Finale has the ability to target creatures in graveyards in addition to libraries, which adds quite a bit of utility in volatile singleton formats. Plus, Finale can grab creatures of any color, which makes it a lot more flexible than a card like Zenith in this format. When you build decks centered around creature effects, being able to target creatures of any color and being able to bring them back from the ‘yard makes the deck a lot more reliable. Not to mention that the card has an absurd additional upside at X=10 or more, where you get a massive overrun and global haste effect after you fetch up your creature. Which will simply end the game better than 9 times out of 10.
What I Don't Like: The XGG cost makes it slower in the early game, which makes it worse at fetching up mana dorks. Finale will be worse at enabling your ramp than GSZ is. And increasing the baseline cost of your target by 2 mana is a lot. It makes whatever you’re grabbing with it a lot less mana efficient.
Verdict: I play a lot of decks centered around creatures and creature interactions. And the ability to tutor them up regardless or color and being able to return them from the graveyard raises the consistency of those decks by quite a bit. I’m looking forward to playing this card at 540, and I expect it to stick around for me for a while. If you play similar creature-centric builds, it could see play in cubes even smaller than that too.
What I Like: This Gideon is more akin to a creature than a traditional ‘walker. It’s a 4/4 indestructible creature that can’t take damage on your turn, which makes it a very effective attacker that can survive your own mass removal. The indestructibility he can gift to other creatures can make him very effective at making your mass creature removal effects asymmetrical. He grants vigilance too, which is good at protecting his loyalty, and he can provide lifelink which makes Gideon very hard to race. All of this is being done while attacking for 4 every turn, while quickly building up to an ultimate that can exile your opponent’s permanents.
What I Don't Like: He can’t protect himself without help, so you need other bodies on the board to take full advantage of his abilities and keep him safe from counterattacks.
Verdict: Might not be the most exciting ‘walker, but Gideon is definitely good. All of the Gideons have been creatures in some respects, but this one takes that concept to its logical conclusion. I’ll be playing this at 540, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it falls anywhere between the 450 to 630 range, depending on playgroup preferences.
What I Like: Well, if you like Diabolic Edict, you’re gonna like Liliana’s Triumph. Any time you have a Liliana out, you get to snag an extra card from their hand in addition to the creature they have to sacrifice, which is a great rate of return for a 2-mana instant. It also doesn’t target the opponent, so it can get around Willbender effects and Aegis of the Gods/Leyline of Sanctity effects if your cube plays any of those.
What I Don't Like: It’s not strictly better than Diabolic Edict, since you can’t target yourself. If a situation arises where you need to fizzle a Treachery or stop the opponent from getting a threat with their Control Magic, you can’t do it. But I think I’ve cast more Edicts with a Liliana on the battlefield than instances where I’ve needed to target myself with one before, so it’s a pretty marginal drawback.
Verdict: If you like Diabolic Edict, you can run this instead. If you love Diabolic Edict (like I do) you can play both. Otherwise, you can probably continue to run neither. I think this is safely a 540 card, with maybe some 450 cubes playing it if you’re into the effect. If you hate edicts, you won’t play it. Simple as that.
What I Like: Blue might be the color that benefits the most from the way the new gods protect themselves for a few of reasons. First, between the card draw and the library manipulation, blue won’t have an issue re-drawing the god quickly if it’s dispatched. Second, blue decks tend to be more threat light, which means that having one that’s almost impossible to truly get rid of makes your won conditions more reliable. Lastly, blue decks are typically slower, so the time it takes to redraw and recast your threat doesn’t go against the deck identity as much. Kefnet is a 4/5 flying creature for 4 mana that can’t be effectively dealt with on a permanent basis. And that’s not even mentioning the ability on the card, which is insanely powerful. Each time that you draw a valid target, Kefnet can copy it …at a discounted price. And the spell goes into your hand. So it doesn’t cost you a card, you just get free card advantage. Draw an impulse? Cast it for one mana and put the Impulse into your hand (along with your chosen card). Extra Ponders, Lightning Bolts, Disenchants …you name it. Some cards get crazy with it, like 1-mana Arc Lightnings and 1-mana draw 7’s. 4-mana on-curve Wildfires? Sign me up. 3-mana free copies of Bribery? Mystic Confluence? The list goes on and on. Not to mention that Kefnet is part of an infinite combo (something that was brought to my attention by ryansaxe, thanks!) with Time Walk and one of either Scroll Rack or Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Insane.
What I Don't Like: Blue’s competition at the 4cc slot is tight for small cubes, and while this may be one of the more generically powerful 4-drops available to the color, the other ones may be more important for supporting specific decktypes.
Verdict: I found a way to shoehorn this into my cube because I think it’s just too powerful not to play in medium-sized cubes. There won’t be any situation where this card is bad, but there might be cubebs that are arranged in such a way where finding room is too difficult. I’m playing this at 540, and it can certainly fit into smaller cubes if you can find room, but I don’t think it should miss the cut in anything at least that size or bigger.
What I Like: Ilharg (which we’ve been calling ill-hog, because he’s one sick pig) is a good monster. A 6/6 trample that’s hard to permanently deal with is a good rate for a 5cc creature, and he fits into a variety of red’s more unique archetypes that it supports. First, it’s a great backup support card for Sneak Attack/Oath fatty-cheating decks. It gives you another effect that can drop big monsters to help with consistency, and it’s particularly helpful in Oath because the attack trigger can give you a way to extract value from a fatty that may otherwise be trapped in your hand. Ill-hog is also fantastic in Wildfire shells, not only because it resolves on T5 and survives an on-curve Wildfire, but also because once the Wildfire pops and players are playing a low-resource game, he helps you utilize otherwise uncastable creatures in your hand. In addition to those decks, Ilharg also works with the Feldon/Alesha/Vat/Portal decks that are engineered to abuse ETB creatures. For obvious reasons, since he puts the creature onto the table, gives you the ETB effect, and then returns it to your hand where it can be used again later. Some creatures in the cube are just insane with this creature, since they either hit really hard, provide powerful effects, or both. The more we’ve seen the boar in action, the more new and unique ways we’re finding to take advantage of it. Great with Greaves and Fires effects too, if you support ‘em. Plus, it’s a BOAR GOD.
What I Don't Like: Since it doesn’t have haste, the opponent can cost-effectively keep it at bay with their removal spells and it doesn’t guarantee you any value. The tuck clause helps, but it can still be painful against cheap removal spells.
Verdict: I was skeptical, then I was a fan, and then I decided to test it and I’m sold. While there are better 5-drops in red, there aren’t any on the outside looking in that can contribute the the success of so many different red decks. I’m stoked to have this in at 540, and I’d play it at 450 too. If you play all the decks that want the boar, it could be playable all the way down to 360 as far as I can tell. Surprisingly good creature.
What I Like: We’ve never really seen a card that functions quite like this before. It’s a planeswalker, but it plays more like an enchantment with loyalty interactions. It will often be correct to elect NOT to use her ability and simply preserve loyalty. She creates her own blockers and has 5 loyalty, so she has some resilience despite not having a {+} ability. The static effect is great. It’s like a hybrid between Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor with the additional upside of creating artifacts. The ability will be useful in token decks, the artifact.dec and in spells matters decks, which makes her valuable for a wide range of archetypes. And she has a hybrid mana cost, even further adding to her flexibility! The {-2} effect will be really broken in certain windows. Copying a Pyromancer or Mentor before unloading a chain of spells is crazy. Turning a cheap artifact into a bomb creature will randomly win games. Saheeli will keep that effect in the bag until it’s time to do something bonkers with it. Like copying big mana rocks and generating massive mana all at once!
What I Don't Like: It’s going to take some getting used to when it comes to loyalty management on a ‘walker with no {+} ability.
Verdict: This card’s power is largely subtle. Incremental advantages, value generated through synergy, strength through flexibility, etc. It doesn’t have the raw obvious strength that attracts less experienced players to it. But I do think this card is really good. Both in the cube and probably for eternal constructed formats too. It would not shock me at all to see this card become a staple everywhere. I would play this card at least at 450, if not all the way down into the #3 slot in Izzet and seeing play at 360.
Ratchet Bomb, in my lands? It’s more likely than you’d think.
What I Like: The advantage Ratchet Bomb has over something like Powder Keg is the ability to hit ‘walkers. The problem that Bomb has with ‘walkers is the length of time it takes to build enough enough counters to pop them. Zone enters with a counter, and can add XX counters per activation, making it a faster way to deal with those kinds of threats when it’s drawn later in the game. Not to mention that entering with a single counter allows you to pop all 1cc cards the turn it resolves, which can help deal with aggro beaters and other utility cards. And since transform cards maintain the CMC of their front sides now, not being able to pop for 0 is less of a liability. And ya, did I mention that this effect is attached to a land?! It doesn’t require a dedicated slot during deckbuilding, and it can be chained with Loam effects. And it enters play untapped. For cheaper CMC targets, Zone is a full turn faster. For more expensive CMC targets, Zone can be twice as fast at reaching a point where it can deal with them.
What I Don't Like: For obvious reasons, the card couldn’t enter with 0 counters, so you can’t use Zone to blow up tokens or Moxen like you can with other cards like it.
Verdict: I like how they navigated the drawback of not being able to be popped for 0 by making it better at dealing with higher CMC permanents. It’s really rare to see this kind of effect attached to a land, and I was really surprised to see it when it was spoiled. I think the card’s going to be quite good. It’s probably good enough for 360 cubes, and I would certainly try and test it for permanent inclusion at 450+.
What I Like: This is yet another take on Goblin Rabblemaster, and we have 5 options for this kind of card now. I sat down and did an incredibly in-depth analysis of the 5 cards in comparison to one another, with the goal to objectively rank the 5 contenders head to head and create a ranking list. I measured each card in 5 categories, and the categories were ultimately weighted from most important to least important. The 5 categories were: Total damage output (bby the end of combbat on T6), Combat survivability, Number of tokens produced (by the end of combat on T6), Floor value and Cube interactions. Damage is the most important, because at the end of the day, it’s a 3cc red creature and dealing damage is what you want it to do (damage was measured at a multiplier of 5). Combat survivability is the 2nd most important aspect of the card, because nothing much matters if the card dies in combat to everything (combat was measured at a multiplier of 4). Next, was the number of tokens produced. While these are attacking red creatures, aggro isn’t their only role. They’re also token makers for those kinds of decks, and how many tokens they generate is important (tokens were measured at a multiplier of 3). Floor value measures how much guaranteed value I get from the card even if it’s dealt with. The first scenario involves the opponent untapping and killing my creature with a removal spell. Am I guaranteed any value if that happens? The second scenario involves dying in combat with the first attack (to a flash creature like Vendillion Clique). How much value do I get if it survives to attack once, even if it dies doing so? Those 2 scenarios combined to create the floor analysis (floor value is measured at a multiplier of 2). The last category was cube interactions, designed to estimate the card’s ceiling in scenarios where the card has help. This was mainly used for a tiebreaker, since while important, it wasn’t as important as the other categories (interactions were measured at a multiplier of 1). So what did that data look like when tabled?
So I compiled all the weighted data, and it gave me the following ranking by the numbers:
I literally set out to prove that Krenko wasn’t up to snuff and ended up proving that he’s the 2nd best one of the bunch. But how? Despite being the lowest in damage output (which was the category with the highest ranking)! Krenko can attack effectively into the biggest blockers. Krenko makes the most tokens. AND Krenko has some of the best interactions in the cube, since anything that pumps his power allows him to make more tokens.
What I Don't Like: The damage output is lower than the other cards in the competition and the floor value is among the worst.
Verdict: My analysis kinda backfired on me because I set out to prove the opposite of what the data ended up showing me. But it’s ultimately a success because it showed me that I needed to see Krenko in action before judging him. So I put him in for testing and haven’t looked back. It’s really a great card. Growing in size makes him far more survivable, and the tokens he creates spiral out of control quickly. While not entering tapped and attacking lowers his damage output, it does allow you to dominate races by having blockers available. Overall, the data suggests that he’s the 2nd best one of those creatures from the pool, and I think that even 360 cubes are playing at least 2 cards of this kind. Therefore I’m concluding that this card is worthwhile at 360. The testing has been proving the data right, I can’t say enough good things about this card.
I hope you enjoyed the article! Please feel free to comment below, or hit me up on Twitter to discuss it. Cheers, and happy cubing!
Old Saheeli is better in the artifact.dec, but doesn't help the spells deck. They're both about equal for the token shells. If you play all 3 decks equally, I'd give the nod to the new one. If you're playing her specifically for artifact shells, I like the older one better. (I assume you're talking about Saheeli, the Gifted and not Saheeli Rai.)
I plan to test Finale over Secure. I think they're very close, but I want to test to find out.
Great write-up as usual! Surprised that your data for red 3 drops saw Hanweir Garrison be ranked ahead of Najeela. I think Najeela's the better card for sure.
Overall, this set is pretty light for my 360 unpowered cube. I want to test Ilharg and Liliana. Not sure what else I'll check out off the bat. Based on your write-up, it seems you agree that a 360 upnowered cube could even forego this set entirely.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, this is a huge set for medium-large cubes, but not that big for smaller ones. I would play at least Krenko and probably test Blast Zone at 360 unpowered (I think unpowered cubes might actually get the most mileage from the land). I'd try out the Saheeli too if you play token decks, spells matters decks and the artifact.dec.
There's a lot of play to this set though, so if there's something that catches your eye, I recommend giving it a trial run.
I was not surprised to see Garrison ahead of the bottom three. I always had it ranked up highly alongside Rabblemaster, and I was glad to see the data back up that theory. I was surprised about Krenko though. It ranked highly and played really well. I'd give it a go.
Good points all around, especially about Saheeli as I do support a few of those archetypes.
What cuts would you endorse for my cube?
Off the top of my head,
Najeela -> Krenko
Ash Barrens -> Blast Zone (feels bad as I just added Ash Barrens for mana fixing)
Electrolyze -> Saheeli (then Izzet is 3 walkers, I'd probably rather cut Saheeli the Gifted)
If you see any cards that stick out like a sore thumb, let me know. Thanks!
Hey long time reader, first time responder. I wanted to say how much I appreciate all this work you do for the cube community. I always look forward to your reviews and comments during release season. As for The Raze Boar who would be the cut in your five drop Red slot? I play Thundermaw, Siege Gang, Kiki Jikki, Zealous Conscripts, and glorybringer. I think it would be glorybringer from those
Great article! Must have been hard considering all the good cards. I am happy including the top 3 for 450. Liliana’s triumph might replace Diabolic Edict if I manage to attend the Open House. (Too bad the signature Edict card is leaving - and I like Commander Greven Il- Vec in a card)
On the rabblemasters, I agree with your assessments, except for Warboss’ survivability. Although it does not have 3 tougnness, it does not need to attack to produce tokens. So you can still get value from him even in stalled boards. I am putting 3 goblins in.
EDIT: I am most excited about Saheeli. Pyromancer with occasional clone abilities... in mono color. Surely the most interesting design entering my cube this iteration.
Thanks for the article! Love these. I change my cubelist based on your changes, mostly because we play cube very rarely and it's hard to value cards when you don't have the time to play and test. So reading your comments about the added cards is very useful when I have to defend the changes to the playgroup ha-ha.
Good job!
PS. Suprised to see Krenko in the number 1 slot. I believe it's hard to theoretically decide which card is the better, the way you did, because there are almost always factors that you don't think about (i.e. Krenko is weak to Karakas (well, and strong if you happen to run it) - how many pts do that yield, etc). Nevertheless, interesting stuff. DS.
Awesome writeup as always, wtwlf. These are always my favorite part of spoiler season. Especially for this set in particular, since it seems like this is the first time in a while you weren't scrambling to find 20 cards to write about. Hell, you didn't even include Commence the Endgame or Dreadhorde Invasion, both of which Usman praised in his own article.
Great as always and this is another set where I will get on my soapbox. We have so many good choices for small cubes now that it is as much how you want your cube to run/the environment/the achetypes as it is about power level.
1. Another rabble-naut. Will pick up one and see for my cube/group what sticks. Your order seems right as Rabblemaster was always the best and garrison has always stood out for the 3 toughness and getting two dudes in a swing. Najeela is in for the candyland scenarios so we will see if I want 3,4, or 5.
2. Blast Zone was my number one for the set. Upping the amount of picks that can make the main deck is awesome, and this is a hugely powerful ability even if you aren't running the crucible package. I will be cutting an artifact or another colorless land as I need all my fixing like ash barrens.
3. You assessment of Sheeli has me very excited as that I what I was hoping for. I will once again hype my rainbow section as this isn't an izzet card except for the fact that deck comes together the most. Plenty of R/X and U/X decks want this. Another Pyromancer type card for Izzet has been on my wishlist for years. This will be in my cube for a long time as spells.dec is my favorite.
4. Much like #3 I was surprised to see this as high for you as me. The Big-Pig or Ill-Hog is such a timmy card people will love. Great to see you find it effective as well.
Not much else on from the set interests me, not because of power level but the interactions in my cube aren't there. Finale of Devastation is the one exception I was hoping it would be GSZ power level but the extra green makes it one step behind apparently.
Great article! Must have been hard considering all the good cards. I am happy including the top 3 for 450. Liliana’s triumph might replace Diabolic Edict if I manage to attend the Open House. (Too bad the signature Edict card is leaving - and I like Commander Greven Il- Vec in a card)
On the rabblemasters, I agree with your assessments, except for Warboss’ survivability. Although it does not have 3 tougnness, it does not need to attack to produce tokens. So you can still get value from him even in stalled boards. I am putting 3 goblins in.
EDIT: I am most excited about Saheeli. Pyromancer with occasional clone abilities... in mono color. Surely the most interesting design entering my cube this iteration.
I still love Diabolic Edict, so I'll be playing both instant-speed ones.
On the combat ratings, I broke the ties for the 2-toughness guys with how effectively they can trade up. Rabblemaster can kill creatures in combat with 3 (or often more) toughness. Najeela can trade with a 2/3 body. Warboss is the only one with a main body that gets completely stonewalled by a 2/3 creature.
And ya, I love Saheeli. Great design and a really flexible card.
Thanks for the article! Love these. I change my cubelist based on your changes, mostly because we play cube very rarely and it's hard to value cards when you don't have the time to play and test. So reading your comments about the added cards is very useful when I have to defend the changes to the playgroup ha-ha.
Good job!
PS. Suprised to see Krenko in the number 1 slot. I believe it's hard to theoretically decide which card is the better, the way you did, because there are almost always factors that you don't think about (i.e. Krenko is weak to Karakas (well, and strong if you happen to run it) - how many pts do that yield, etc). Nevertheless, interesting stuff. DS.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the content, and ya, Krenko is a good Magic card.
Awesome writeup as always, wtwlf. These are always my favorite part of spoiler season. Especially for this set in particular, since it seems like this is the first time in a while you weren't scrambling to find 20 cards to write about. Hell, you didn't even include Commence the Endgame or Dreadhorde Invasion, both of which Usman praised in his own article.
Thanks again for all your hard work!
That's why I encouraged people to go out and consume as much cube content as possible regarding War of the Spark. There's a lot of cards in the set worth discussing, and my article only covers my favorite 20.
Great as always and this is another set where I will get on my soapbox. We have so many good choices for small cubes now that it is as much how you want your cube to run/the environment/the achetypes as it is about power level.
1. Another rabble-naut. Will pick up one and see for my cube/group what sticks. Your order seems right as Rabblemaster was always the best and garrison has always stood out for the 3 toughness and getting two dudes in a swing. Najeela is in for the candyland scenarios so we will see if I want 3,4, or 5.
2. Blast Zone was my number one for the set. Upping the amount of picks that can make the main deck is awesome, and this is a hugely powerful ability even if you aren't running the crucible package. I will be cutting an artifact or another colorless land as I need all my fixing like ash barrens.
3. You assessment of Sheeli has me very excited as that I what I was hoping for. I will once again hype my rainbow section as this isn't an izzet card except for the fact that deck comes together the most. Plenty of R/X and U/X decks want this. Another Pyromancer type card for Izzet has been on my wishlist for years. This will be in my cube for a long time as spells.dec is my favorite.
4. Much like #3 I was surprised to see this as high for you as me. The Big-Pig or Ill-Hog is such a timmy card people will love. Great to see you find it effective as well.
Not much else on from the set interests me, not because of power level but the interactions in my cube aren't there. Finale of Devastation is the one exception I was hoping it would be GSZ power level but the extra green makes it one step behind apparently.
Glad to see we were on the same wavelength with most of the top cards.
I liked the set, and will be playing quite a few cards from it myself.
Enjoyed the write-up...had the pleasure of opening a Krenko in my prerelease pool with a TON of B/R removal. It won many games single-handedly. I think it might be the best 2R token maker, but I value the resilience/ number of tokens it drops over sheer damage output. The former means it's likely to swing more than once and the latter is a boon to the Purphoros archetype.
Dreadhorde Invasion also showed up quite a bit in my prerelease and I found it was good (especially on turn 2 in limited) but without additional amass support it has no shot at making my cube.
How about the new Ajani, the Greathearted for cube? I think he might be the real deal since he can do two Nissa, Voice of Zendikar activations without dying and the vigilance granted is a form of self-protection for Ajani so long as you have dudes which you should in G/W. This wasn't on my radar until I saw it wreck people in WAR standard and I realized that Selesnya really isn't that strong of a guild...slotting this in over Qasali Pridemage or even Mirari's Wake feels right.
Invasion seems okay if you can sac the token every turn, but I don't want to be paying life just for a +1/+1 counter.
Ajani is good, but I think I like Ajani Goldmane better. It gets more activations of the global +1/+1 counter activation while still providing vigilance, also gains life, has an ultimate, and is only one color. Outside of superfriends, I think the OG version is just better. Don't want to cut unique gold cards for effects I can find in my monocolor sections for the same price.
Just wanted to say thanks for the write-up! I look forward to these every (major) spoiler season. I've been living without my playgroup for a while now, but these always manage to get me excited enough to fire up Forge and try some new drafts. Cheers!
No love for Kiora?
Anyways, thanks for the review! I'm gonna test some extra cards I didn't consider before and that's exactly why I'm reading these ;-)
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No love for Kiora?
Anyways, thanks for the review! I'm gonna test some extra cards I didn't consider before and that's exactly why I'm reading these ;-)
I'm not sold on including Krenko (he seems strong, but there are so many Rabblemaster variants), but am excited about options 2-12 enough that I'm trying to figure out how many I can find room for.
EDIT: Not to say that he's a bad variant - I'm just less excited to swap one out for another than to add a card that's more distinct from other things out there.
Ya, he's not as exciting because we have a lot of similar cards, but he's really good, and should probably replace one of the existing ones if nothing else.
I am a bit unsure about your calculations about Krenko. The fact that the tokens do not attack right away is a big disadvantage. Especially as Rabblemaster (and Krenko will end up eating removal pretty quickly in a lot of games. Calculating the goldfish damage value over six turns is a metric, but it is not the most realistic metric I think.
To me Krenko's big advantage i the fact that he has synergies with a lot of power boosting cards. But does that offset the fact that he is quite a bit slower in most games ( where you never get 4 , 5 or 6 hits with him and his buddies.
It's a disadvantage that is already measured in his damage calculation. The only disadvantage of them not entering tapped and attacking is the lowering of his damage output. But it's actually an advantage in other scenarios, like racing, where having a few chump-blockers can turn the race in your favor. But despite being the lowest on the damage output, he still ranked #2 in the overall ranking when factoring in all the other aspects I discussed. And that was the metric that was weighted the highest too, since it's arguably the most important component to grade.
This is my 29th 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.
War of the Spark is a wild set. It’s loaded with planeswalkers, storyline cards, powerful cycles and a bunch of other cool stuff for us cubers to try out. They tried using a slower spoiler season for this set, and it made for dramatic reveals. The set started off slow, but got a lot better towards the end. It’s a good set for cubes, and while this list is limited to the 20 cards I thought would have the biggest immediate impact on lists, there are undoubtedly cards that aren’t on this Top 20 list that are still viable cube inclusions for your playgroup! I encourage everyone to go out and consume as much cube content as you can, since my list is only going to discuss 20 cards of a fun, flavorful and powerful set that you’re bound to find exciting cards in.
Without further ado, I can start the countdown!
Return to Nature
A better Naturalize!
What I Like: Well, if you like Naturalize, you’re gonna want to play RtN. The additional upside seems marginal, but in the situations where it’s important to snipe cards out of the graveyard, it will have a big impact on the game. It’s probably just enough of a bump to make folks reconsider using this spell if they switched from Naturalize to cards like Deglamer and Unravel the Aether over it before.
What I Don't Like: Green has a lot of naturalize effects available to it in the cube, and the majority of them are tied into creature bodies. Which is an advantage for multiple reasons. First, it’s functional card advantage when it’s strapped to a creature, and second, there are lots of green cards that function well with creatures. Disenchant is a better white card than Naturalize is a green card, and I’m not sure that the anti-graveyard tech is enough to put it over the edge in comparison to the effects green currently plays that are attached to bodies.
Verdict: This doesn’t quite get there for me, yet, but my guess is that the additional anti-graveyard tech is going to push a fringe-playable card into something that more cubes should be using. If you can find room for Return to Nature, I’d try it out and see how often the upside comes into play for your playgroup. For me, it might be somewhere in the 630-720 range, but that can change dramatically from one playgroup to the next.
Eternal Taskmaster
A solid beatdown 2-drop.
What I Like: A 2/3 body with a splashable 2-mana cost is a great baseline. Being a zombie is a nice additional benefit, and the ability can be powerful in situations where the game goes long. Any time you have an aggressive 2cc creature that can represent card advantage, it’s worth a closer look to see how it might play out. I like the fact that it can keep a stream of threats coming in situations where your deck may have otherwise run out of gas.
What I Don't Like: The only real complaint is the steep activation cost on the ability. 3 mana is a lot, and in decks looking to play attacking 2-drops, it may not be the kind of cost your deck is engineered to pay without losing a turn doing so. That, and the entering tapped clause prevents it from being a great defensive creature, so it gets further pigeonholed into the aggressive shells.
Verdict: I think this is a good creature, but it fell just outside of my cube range due to an unnatural attachment my playgroup and I have with a couple of the black 2-drops we play. But I would play this at 630+ myself, and there’s a good chance it should be included in cubes smaller than that too. Good body, splashable cost, card-advantage potential …it’s a recipe for a good cube creature.
Ugin, the Ineffable
A decent 6cc colorless planeswalker.
What I Like: Ugin grows his loyalty by adding a 2/2 body to the table that essentially draws a card when it dies. That makes for a good defensive tactic because it further disincentivizes the opponent from attacking into them. And Ugin has a flexible {-3} ability that can deal with most any kind of permanent you need it to. And while the static ability won’t provide a huge benefit to every deck, there are certainly shells that will be able to use his -2 cost to colorless cards as an upside.
What I Don't Like: If I need to use it to destroy a threat, Ugin’s loyalty gets quite low; running him all the way down to 1 after a single activation. While that won’t be super relevant in the cases where you’re removing the only card that can realistically threaten him, it will be an issue against boards with multiple threats out. He can’t be used to destroy colorless threats, so if the opponent presents a powerful artifact or colorless card that just needs to be removed, Ugin can’t do it. And lastly, the static cost reduction ability is pretty narrow. There are a lot of cases where it simply won’t do anything at all outside of very specific draws.
Verdict: There’s certainly nothing wrong with this Ugin. He’s a good card in pretty much every respect. I couldn’t find a slot for him in my current colorless section, but if my cube was even a little bigger, I’d have an opening for Ugin to slot into. I’d play Ugin at 630+, but depending on how much you feel like the static ability will be used by your group, Ugin could certainly be playable down into smaller cube sizes.
Mobilized District
A solid colorless manland.
What I Like: I originally wrote this off because it didn’t fit the mold for what I want my manlands to be doing. Typically, I want manlands to meet one of three criteria: 1) They fix my mana. Any manland that fixes mana I’m down with. 2) They attack for more than their activation cost. This allows me to make cost-effective attacks with the card when the opportunity is there. 3) The card attacks for at least 2 damage with evasion. This makes the manland a reliable win condition in the later board-stall stages of the game that doesn’t take an eternity to kill the opponent. Without fixing mana or having evasion, District was going to have to hurdle criteria #2. Originally I evaluated the card without accounting for the vigilance. But being untapped after attacking effectively reduces its activation cost by 1. Which means I’m tapping 4 lands to attack for 3, which still isn’t quite efficient enough. But the activated ability is reduced by both planeswalkers AND legendary creatures, and having even one of those kinds of cards in play makes the District a cost-effective attacker. There are a lot of legends and ‘walkers in the cube, so I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to think having one in play is too difficult. Some decks can pretty easily turn this into a reliably cheap-activating manland. And if the cost reduction reaches 2 or even 3? The card gets insanely good. If you can start activating this for cheap, you can be attacking and blocking with it in the same round. And attacking for 3 with a manland and only winding up having tapped 2 lands to do so is an insanely good rate. And not impossible for some decks to expect to reach.
What I Don't Like: The cost reduction is inconsistent. It’s not good enough without help on the battlefield, and in every situation where it’s activating for cheap and being an incredible card, it’ll be activating for 4 mana and being largely unplayable.
Verdict: If you can deal with the inconsistency issues, or have decks that your group commonly drafts that can consistently reduce District’s activation cost, it’s going to be a great land for you. For us, it just misses the cut below 630+, but there are probably groups that will want to play this in smaller cubes too. With one legend and one ‘walker in play, the land’s spectacular. And even with one target out, it’s quite serviceable. Probably worth extended testing to see how consistently the discount applies.
Enter the God-Eternals
A Dimir Flametongue Kavu!
What I Like: The easiest comparison to make is the obvious one to FTK. Enter has +2 toughness on the body, mills for 4 and gains 4 life in comparison to the Kavu. The milling is meh, but the 2 additional toughness is relevant. The 4 life gain is really significant. For a slower, more controlling Dimir shell, being behind on life is really common. Getting a life buffer to help stabilize, killing a threat AND creating a 4/4 body is no joke. Being stapled to a spell gives it interactions with Jace, Snappy, Mystical Tutor (and others) within its colors too.
What I Don't Like: Losing the creature card type makes it harder to abuse than FTK. And being 2 colors with 3 colored mana symbols makes it far narrower. Plus, the competition in Dimir is steep. Also, the double-blue just feels off… with creature removal, a black zombie body, lifegain, the card feels more black than blue if anything, and since black has a shallow shelf of 5cc cards in the cube, it would’ve been nice if the non-black color was the splash.
Verdict: This isn’t quite good enough to start pushing out top-tier Dimir cards. But it’s easy to overlook this card because of how good the other options are. If this looks like a card your playgroup might be interested in testing, I recommend doing so, because I think the spell is really good, despite the insane competition. I think this competes well against the tier-2 Dimir cards, and if it looks appealing, don’t hesitate to test it. It might make the cut for me as the #6 Dimir card or so, which makes it a 630-720-ish kinda card probably. If you ‘re willing to give it a shot over other legitimately good cube cards, that is.
Angrath's Rampage
An edict version of Bedevil.
What I Like: Being able to surgically apply which edict mode is selected helps to reduce the number of choices the opponent actually has. Planeswalkers are so very often the only ‘walker in play that its controller controls that an ‘walker edict is going to be the same thing as a targeted removal spell for them 95+% of the time. In the early game, you should be able to use this to kill any lone creature or lone artifact. But as the game progresses, you won’t be able to shatter that Sword because the opponent can ditch a Signet. And you can’t kill their fresh bomb creature because they can sacrifice a cheaper critter. The flexibility will bring a lot of value to the card in comparison to things like Dreadbore and Terminate because this can kill artifacts and those can’t. And in comparison to something like Bedevil, Rampage only costs 2 mana and is splashable. So it’s somewhere in that mix. Not fundamentally better or worse than any of the other commonly played options.
What I Don't Like: Creature edicts usually have 2 advantages over the targeted removal options of the same type. The first is the ability to get around shroud/hexproof/protection and the like, since it doesn’t target. The second is that the spell has no targeting restrictions (they’re not limited to non-black or non-artifact targets, for example). Angrath’s Rampage loses that second upside because the spells that it’s being compared to (Dreadbore, Bedevil, Terminate, Etc) don’t have restrictions on what kinds of creatures they can kill. Which makes Rampage a worse creature edict in comparison to cards in its slot than cards like Diabolic Edict are to mono-black 2cc removal options.
Verdict: Hard to evaluate without seeing it in action. My gut tells me that it’s really close to both Dreadbore and Bedevil in terms of being quality Rakdos removal spells, but because there are no targeting restrictions on the removal spells it’s being compared to, I’m less willing to sidegrade into an edict effect here than I am in mono black. It could very well be playable at 540, or it might not be needed at all. It’s going to be very playgroup dependent, and it’s going to require a lot of reps to flesh out exactly where it’ll settle.
Sarkhan the Masterless
Half Sarkhan half Broodmate Dragon.
What I Like: Sarkhan comes down, makes a 4/4 dragon and immediately makes it harder for your opponent to pressure you or your planeswalkers. It effectively shuts off all 1-toughness attackers, and allows all your smaller bodies to trade up in combat. On subsequent turns, he turns himself into a dragon too, and allows you to bash for 8 with flying the turn after he resolves. It almost plays more like a 5cc Broodmate Dragon with built-in defenses than it does a traditional ‘walker. It’s important to note that the {+1} ability turns ALL your ‘walkers into dragons, so in a superfriends shell you can threaten a really fast clock with other planeswalkers in play. And the defensive trigger applies for each dragon. So if he ticks up into a 2nd token or you have another dragon in play somehow, the defensive ability gets out of control.
What I Don't Like: Great card on its own, but there just aren’t that many red decks I create in cubes that want to play this. It’s too slow as an aggro curve-topper without haste. It doesn’t interact well with Wildfires. It’s basically relegated to generic midrange decks, red control shells and Moat/Quake decks. Which is fine, but I’m looking for a little more flexibility out of my 5cc cards unless they’re specifically used to help enable a decktype.
Verdict: Good card, and one that I initially slept on a little bit. If you play decks that want this kind of card often, add it in. It’s really powerful. For us, it’ll ultimately be too narrow because I can’t use it in our most popular red builds. Easily good enough on its own for any cube size 540 or bigger as long as you’ll use it regularly, but just make sure that your playgroup has a home for him before tossing it into the cube.
God-Eternal Bontu
A powerful sacrifice engine.
What I Like: Well, a 5/6 menace that’s hard to permanently remove is a good baseline for 5 mana. Add on the ability to convert unneeded and outclassed permanents into fresh cards and you’ve got yourself a stew goin’. It’s surprisingly easy for decks to find a land or two they might not need, and maybe an extra mana rock, creature token or outclassed early-game body to sacrifice to Bontu when he resolves. When I was testing it, it was typically finding 2-3 cards to sacrifice, which made for a very powerful ETB trigger. Where he really shined though was in decks that were designed to bring these cards back. Loam/Crucible/Excavator shells could use Bontu to draw extra cards for little to no cost. Pairing him with Gravecrawlers and Bloodghasts and the like also made his drawback close to free, which made the trigger into pure card advantage. In those kinds of decks, he tested really well.
What I Don't Like: When I was testing him in decks that didn’t have ways to make his sacrifice effect into card advantage, the trigger was far more fair. When the sacrifice was actually a cost, it was only really beneficial when I was heavily flooded or I had an army of tokens that were being stonewalled. Wasn’t a great card for control or Wildfire decks because of the nature of his sacrifice effect being resource hungry.
Verdict: Great card for the sacrifice/recursion decks and Loam/Crucible packages. Solid card in other situations. Just a bit too narrow to make the cut in the current configuration of my 540. It’s a bit too late, as this card would’ve been a sight for sore eyes when black’s 5cc creature section was empty.
Domri, Anarch of Bolas
A good 3cc ‘walker.
What I Like: It’s a good card for Gruul that’s not 4 mana! It’s a powerful package of effects for 3 mana. The +1/+0 anthem is a good static ability for go-wide aggressive decks and token decks. The {+1} ability provides good ramp and makes your midrange threats uncounterable. The {-2} fight trigger allows your oversized monsters to dominate smaller critters. All of his abilities are good.
What I Don't Like: Well, he does nothing on his own, and he can’t build up towards anything on his own either. If the opponent can keep your creatures off the board, Domri does literal nothing. And while all of his abilities are good effects for you, they seem to be pulling in different directions. The static ability is best suited for aggressive shells and go-wide builds. Which is the opposite kind of deck that wants the fight trigger, which is best suited for decks with powerful, oversized midrange bodies. And the middle ability is great for making my 4 and 5cc creatures uncounterable, but those bodies don’t care much about the 1 extra power.
Verdict: I would play this card myself if I had one extra slot in Gruul. But It just missed my 540 as is. But it is a good card, and I expect people to have success with it in this format.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General
Black’s powerful 6cc ‘walker.
What I Like: This looks to be black’s version of the 6cc Chandra and 6cc Elspeth that red and white have access to. Better in some instances and worse in others. First, Liliana has a powerful static ability; drawing a card whenever a creature dies is a very good line of text. And it works well with her {+1}. She resolves a 6 loyalty, can tick up to 7 while creating a blocker that can both trade off with an attacker and draw cards when it dies. That’s a tough uphill grind for the opponent to try to get through if they need to remove her. And her Barter in Blood trigger is a powerful effect for two reasons. First, it makes her quite effective at destroying boards with a small number of powerful threats on them. And second, her static ability really works towards making her Barter trigger asymmetrical. Your opponent loses quality creatures, and you either lose nothing, or draw up to 2 cards during the exchange. And she has an ultimate that’s very good. Liliana will prove to be a midrange breaker. Against medium-density decks with powerful individual threats, she’s going to be a complete bomb.
What I Don't Like: Both of the other 6cc control ‘walkers I use are good in scenarios where Liliana isn’t. They’re both good against swarm aggro and go-wide token decks. Those two decks are very popular in my cube. Elspeth creates 3 blockers to protect herself with, and Chandra can wipe boards against those strategies. Liliana’s biggest weakness is a strength shared by both Elspeth and Chandra. Secondly, Liliana is a painfully slow clock in comparison to those other cards. Elspeth creates 3 bodies a turn, creates 50% more power, and has an ultimate that in conjunction with her {+} ends the game on the spot most of the time. And Chandra produces 6 power of hastey threats… Chandra has attacked the opponent for 12 damage on the same turn when Liliana’s tokens have chipped in for their first 2.
Verdict: Liliana is a good ‘walker. Powerful synergistic abilities and she’s a silver bullet for threat-light builds. But her weakness to swarm aggro and token decks, and the slow nature of her clock caused some concerns with us during testing. I have her included for extended testing at 540 at the moment, but I'm not 100% sold on her as a permanent inclusion yet.
Finale of Glory
A scaleabble token producer.
What I Like: Unlike other cards of its kind, Finale of Glory produces power and toughness at a very respectable rate. If you compare it to the good fixed-cost token producers that commonly see cube play, the power/cost ratio on Finale is decent. Starting with 4 mana, cards like Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Whirler Rogue make 4 power and multiple bodies …so does Finale. Cards like Angel of Invention and Cloudgoat Ranger make 6 power and multiple bodies for 5 mana …so does Finale. Broodmate Dragon makes 8 power and multiple bodies for 6 mana, and so does FoG. No matter where it gets played in the curve at 4+ mana, it’s going to generate a good amount of power and toughness for you, even at a rate comparable with fixed-price effects. And of course, when X=10, Finale produces 60 (SIXTY!) power worth of creatures. That’s completely absurd and wildly unprecedented. And it can occur on curve directly after Mirari’s Wake (which actually makes it 80 power). And no matter the value, the tokens all have vigilance which is a nice upside in decks anticipating a race.
What I Don't Like: Only specific decks are in the market for a scaleable token engine. W/x token/anthem decks and W/G ramp. Now both of those decks are popular in my group, but they’re not for everybody. And while the P/T created by Finale is above-average, it loses some upsides other cards of its kind have, like splashable costs, instant speed and token count.
Verdict: Card’s good but not great. If you support the decks that are interested in its efficient power/cost ratio while making multiple bodies (W/x token shells) and/or you play W/G super-ramp decks that can can potentially reach 12+ mana I suggest giving it a shot. It least until you’ve seen it create 60+ power once or twice. I play both of those decks in my playgroup, so the card appeals to me at 540. For other groups, it may land somewhere higher in the cube size value, or not be appealing at all.
Vivien's Arkbow
A unique and interesting green utility engine.
What I Like: Arkbow does a lot of little things. It’s a repeatable cheap discard outlet for graveyard-centric decks. It has the ability to turn unneeded resources into potential uncounterable threats, and it can do so at instant speed. Every time a deck draws an extra land, dead utility card or lackluster card, you can spin the wheel and try to convert it into something valuable. When you’re able to hit, you just took a useless resource and turned it into something you can use. More importantly, Arkbow has a lot of synergy with cards that want to be in the graveyard. Loam decks with Loam or excess lands? Turn them into threats at no real cost. Graveyard recursion decks? Pitch that Blooodghast, turn it into another threat, and bring the ‘ghast back for free. You get the idea. It goes from decent to amazing in decks that can use the discard to their advantage. Don’t use it when you don’t need to; activate it when you truly have dead cards, and the effect can function like pure upside for you.
What I Don't Like: The card is only okay at face value. It can miss, so if the discarded card is a resource of any value, the risk is often not worth the reward. It’s going to be relegated to decks that can take advantage of the discarded cards, where it’ll be great. But it’s going to be 22nd-23rd playable at best in generic green decks.
Verdict: A lot of what I use green for in my cube involves graveyard utility. This card will be great in Loam decks, in reanimator decks, and in recursion decks. Not to mention that it has some backdoor utility in artifact.dec shells, where it’s both an artifact and can discard big targets to your Welders, Darettis and Feldons …and it can help justify that green splash for that Verdurous Gearhulk. I plan on testing this at 540 for some extended time because it’s a hard c ard to properly evaluate without reps, and I extensively play all of the archetypes that can have success with the card. For other groups, this can range from a staple to a complete miss depending on how your playgroup likes to play.
Finale of Devastation
A new GSZ variant.
What I Like: The most obvious comparison we can draw from is Green Sun’s Zenith. Finale has the ability to target creatures in graveyards in addition to libraries, which adds quite a bit of utility in volatile singleton formats. Plus, Finale can grab creatures of any color, which makes it a lot more flexible than a card like Zenith in this format. When you build decks centered around creature effects, being able to target creatures of any color and being able to bring them back from the ‘yard makes the deck a lot more reliable. Not to mention that the card has an absurd additional upside at X=10 or more, where you get a massive overrun and global haste effect after you fetch up your creature. Which will simply end the game better than 9 times out of 10.
What I Don't Like: The XGG cost makes it slower in the early game, which makes it worse at fetching up mana dorks. Finale will be worse at enabling your ramp than GSZ is. And increasing the baseline cost of your target by 2 mana is a lot. It makes whatever you’re grabbing with it a lot less mana efficient.
Verdict: I play a lot of decks centered around creatures and creature interactions. And the ability to tutor them up regardless or color and being able to return them from the graveyard raises the consistency of those decks by quite a bit. I’m looking forward to playing this card at 540, and I expect it to stick around for me for a while. If you play similar creature-centric builds, it could see play in cubes even smaller than that too.
Gideon Blackblade
A planeswalker that plays like a creature.
What I Like: This Gideon is more akin to a creature than a traditional ‘walker. It’s a 4/4 indestructible creature that can’t take damage on your turn, which makes it a very effective attacker that can survive your own mass removal. The indestructibility he can gift to other creatures can make him very effective at making your mass creature removal effects asymmetrical. He grants vigilance too, which is good at protecting his loyalty, and he can provide lifelink which makes Gideon very hard to race. All of this is being done while attacking for 4 every turn, while quickly building up to an ultimate that can exile your opponent’s permanents.
What I Don't Like: He can’t protect himself without help, so you need other bodies on the board to take full advantage of his abilities and keep him safe from counterattacks.
Verdict: Might not be the most exciting ‘walker, but Gideon is definitely good. All of the Gideons have been creatures in some respects, but this one takes that concept to its logical conclusion. I’ll be playing this at 540, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it falls anywhere between the 450 to 630 range, depending on playgroup preferences.
Liliana's Triumph
A new Diabolic Edict variant!
What I Like: Well, if you like Diabolic Edict, you’re gonna like Liliana’s Triumph. Any time you have a Liliana out, you get to snag an extra card from their hand in addition to the creature they have to sacrifice, which is a great rate of return for a 2-mana instant. It also doesn’t target the opponent, so it can get around Willbender effects and Aegis of the Gods/Leyline of Sanctity effects if your cube plays any of those.
What I Don't Like: It’s not strictly better than Diabolic Edict, since you can’t target yourself. If a situation arises where you need to fizzle a Treachery or stop the opponent from getting a threat with their Control Magic, you can’t do it. But I think I’ve cast more Edicts with a Liliana on the battlefield than instances where I’ve needed to target myself with one before, so it’s a pretty marginal drawback.
Verdict: If you like Diabolic Edict, you can run this instead. If you love Diabolic Edict (like I do) you can play both. Otherwise, you can probably continue to run neither. I think this is safely a 540 card, with maybe some 450 cubes playing it if you’re into the effect. If you hate edicts, you won’t play it. Simple as that.
God-Eternal Kefnet
A good body with a powerful ability.
What I Like: Blue might be the color that benefits the most from the way the new gods protect themselves for a few of reasons. First, between the card draw and the library manipulation, blue won’t have an issue re-drawing the god quickly if it’s dispatched. Second, blue decks tend to be more threat light, which means that having one that’s almost impossible to truly get rid of makes your won conditions more reliable. Lastly, blue decks are typically slower, so the time it takes to redraw and recast your threat doesn’t go against the deck identity as much. Kefnet is a 4/5 flying creature for 4 mana that can’t be effectively dealt with on a permanent basis. And that’s not even mentioning the ability on the card, which is insanely powerful. Each time that you draw a valid target, Kefnet can copy it …at a discounted price. And the spell goes into your hand. So it doesn’t cost you a card, you just get free card advantage. Draw an impulse? Cast it for one mana and put the Impulse into your hand (along with your chosen card). Extra Ponders, Lightning Bolts, Disenchants …you name it. Some cards get crazy with it, like 1-mana Arc Lightnings and 1-mana draw 7’s. 4-mana on-curve Wildfires? Sign me up. 3-mana free copies of Bribery? Mystic Confluence? The list goes on and on. Not to mention that Kefnet is part of an infinite combo (something that was brought to my attention by ryansaxe, thanks!) with Time Walk and one of either Scroll Rack or Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Insane.
What I Don't Like: Blue’s competition at the 4cc slot is tight for small cubes, and while this may be one of the more generically powerful 4-drops available to the color, the other ones may be more important for supporting specific decktypes.
Verdict: I found a way to shoehorn this into my cube because I think it’s just too powerful not to play in medium-sized cubes. There won’t be any situation where this card is bad, but there might be cubebs that are arranged in such a way where finding room is too difficult. I’m playing this at 540, and it can certainly fit into smaller cubes if you can find room, but I don’t think it should miss the cut in anything at least that size or bigger.
Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
A strong creature with a unique ability.
What I Like: Ilharg (which we’ve been calling ill-hog, because he’s one sick pig) is a good monster. A 6/6 trample that’s hard to permanently deal with is a good rate for a 5cc creature, and he fits into a variety of red’s more unique archetypes that it supports. First, it’s a great backup support card for Sneak Attack/Oath fatty-cheating decks. It gives you another effect that can drop big monsters to help with consistency, and it’s particularly helpful in Oath because the attack trigger can give you a way to extract value from a fatty that may otherwise be trapped in your hand. Ill-hog is also fantastic in Wildfire shells, not only because it resolves on T5 and survives an on-curve Wildfire, but also because once the Wildfire pops and players are playing a low-resource game, he helps you utilize otherwise uncastable creatures in your hand. In addition to those decks, Ilharg also works with the Feldon/Alesha/Vat/Portal decks that are engineered to abuse ETB creatures. For obvious reasons, since he puts the creature onto the table, gives you the ETB effect, and then returns it to your hand where it can be used again later. Some creatures in the cube are just insane with this creature, since they either hit really hard, provide powerful effects, or both. The more we’ve seen the boar in action, the more new and unique ways we’re finding to take advantage of it. Great with Greaves and Fires effects too, if you support ‘em. Plus, it’s a BOAR GOD.
What I Don't Like: Since it doesn’t have haste, the opponent can cost-effectively keep it at bay with their removal spells and it doesn’t guarantee you any value. The tuck clause helps, but it can still be painful against cheap removal spells.
Verdict: I was skeptical, then I was a fan, and then I decided to test it and I’m sold. While there are better 5-drops in red, there aren’t any on the outside looking in that can contribute the the success of so many different red decks. I’m stoked to have this in at 540, and I’d play it at 450 too. If you play all the decks that want the boar, it could be playable all the way down to 360 as far as I can tell. Surprisingly good creature.
Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
A hybrid Young Pyromancer variant.
What I Like: We’ve never really seen a card that functions quite like this before. It’s a planeswalker, but it plays more like an enchantment with loyalty interactions. It will often be correct to elect NOT to use her ability and simply preserve loyalty. She creates her own blockers and has 5 loyalty, so she has some resilience despite not having a {+} ability. The static effect is great. It’s like a hybrid between Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor with the additional upside of creating artifacts. The ability will be useful in token decks, the artifact.dec and in spells matters decks, which makes her valuable for a wide range of archetypes. And she has a hybrid mana cost, even further adding to her flexibility! The {-2} effect will be really broken in certain windows. Copying a Pyromancer or Mentor before unloading a chain of spells is crazy. Turning a cheap artifact into a bomb creature will randomly win games. Saheeli will keep that effect in the bag until it’s time to do something bonkers with it. Like copying big mana rocks and generating massive mana all at once!
What I Don't Like: It’s going to take some getting used to when it comes to loyalty management on a ‘walker with no {+} ability.
Verdict: This card’s power is largely subtle. Incremental advantages, value generated through synergy, strength through flexibility, etc. It doesn’t have the raw obvious strength that attracts less experienced players to it. But I do think this card is really good. Both in the cube and probably for eternal constructed formats too. It would not shock me at all to see this card become a staple everywhere. I would play this card at least at 450, if not all the way down into the #3 slot in Izzet and seeing play at 360.
Blast Zone
Ratchet Bomb, in my lands? It’s more likely than you’d think.
What I Like: The advantage Ratchet Bomb has over something like Powder Keg is the ability to hit ‘walkers. The problem that Bomb has with ‘walkers is the length of time it takes to build enough enough counters to pop them. Zone enters with a counter, and can add XX counters per activation, making it a faster way to deal with those kinds of threats when it’s drawn later in the game. Not to mention that entering with a single counter allows you to pop all 1cc cards the turn it resolves, which can help deal with aggro beaters and other utility cards. And since transform cards maintain the CMC of their front sides now, not being able to pop for 0 is less of a liability. And ya, did I mention that this effect is attached to a land?! It doesn’t require a dedicated slot during deckbuilding, and it can be chained with Loam effects. And it enters play untapped. For cheaper CMC targets, Zone is a full turn faster. For more expensive CMC targets, Zone can be twice as fast at reaching a point where it can deal with them.
What I Don't Like: For obvious reasons, the card couldn’t enter with 0 counters, so you can’t use Zone to blow up tokens or Moxen like you can with other cards like it.
Verdict: I like how they navigated the drawback of not being able to be popped for 0 by making it better at dealing with higher CMC permanents. It’s really rare to see this kind of effect attached to a land, and I was really surprised to see it when it was spoiled. I think the card’s going to be quite good. It’s probably good enough for 360 cubes, and I would certainly try and test it for permanent inclusion at 450+.
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
Another Rabblemaster variant?
What I Like: This is yet another take on Goblin Rabblemaster, and we have 5 options for this kind of card now. I sat down and did an incredibly in-depth analysis of the 5 cards in comparison to one another, with the goal to objectively rank the 5 contenders head to head and create a ranking list. I measured each card in 5 categories, and the categories were ultimately weighted from most important to least important. The 5 categories were: Total damage output (bby the end of combbat on T6), Combat survivability, Number of tokens produced (by the end of combat on T6), Floor value and Cube interactions. Damage is the most important, because at the end of the day, it’s a 3cc red creature and dealing damage is what you want it to do (damage was measured at a multiplier of 5). Combat survivability is the 2nd most important aspect of the card, because nothing much matters if the card dies in combat to everything (combat was measured at a multiplier of 4). Next, was the number of tokens produced. While these are attacking red creatures, aggro isn’t their only role. They’re also token makers for those kinds of decks, and how many tokens they generate is important (tokens were measured at a multiplier of 3). Floor value measures how much guaranteed value I get from the card even if it’s dealt with. The first scenario involves the opponent untapping and killing my creature with a removal spell. Am I guaranteed any value if that happens? The second scenario involves dying in combat with the first attack (to a flash creature like Vendillion Clique). How much value do I get if it survives to attack once, even if it dies doing so? Those 2 scenarios combined to create the floor analysis (floor value is measured at a multiplier of 2). The last category was cube interactions, designed to estimate the card’s ceiling in scenarios where the card has help. This was mainly used for a tiebreaker, since while important, it wasn’t as important as the other categories (interactions were measured at a multiplier of 1). So what did that data look like when tabled?
So I compiled all the weighted data, and it gave me the following ranking by the numbers:
#1 (51 Points) - Goblin Rabblemaster
#2 (48 Points) - Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
#3 (43 Points) - Hanweir Garrison
#4 (42 Points) - Najeela, the Blade-Blossom
#5 (41 Points) - Legion Warboss
I literally set out to prove that Krenko wasn’t up to snuff and ended up proving that he’s the 2nd best one of the bunch. But how? Despite being the lowest in damage output (which was the category with the highest ranking)! Krenko can attack effectively into the biggest blockers. Krenko makes the most tokens. AND Krenko has some of the best interactions in the cube, since anything that pumps his power allows him to make more tokens.
What I Don't Like: The damage output is lower than the other cards in the competition and the floor value is among the worst.
Verdict: My analysis kinda backfired on me because I set out to prove the opposite of what the data ended up showing me. But it’s ultimately a success because it showed me that I needed to see Krenko in action before judging him. So I put him in for testing and haven’t looked back. It’s really a great card. Growing in size makes him far more survivable, and the tokens he creates spiral out of control quickly. While not entering tapped and attacking lowers his damage output, it does allow you to dominate races by having blockers available. Overall, the data suggests that he’s the 2nd best one of those creatures from the pool, and I think that even 360 cubes are playing at least 2 cards of this kind. Therefore I’m concluding that this card is worthwhile at 360. The testing has been proving the data right, I can’t say enough good things about this card.
I hope you enjoyed the article! Please feel free to comment below, or hit me up on Twitter to discuss it. Cheers, and happy cubing!
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Great article!
Old Saheeli is better in the artifact.dec, but doesn't help the spells deck. They're both about equal for the token shells. If you play all 3 decks equally, I'd give the nod to the new one. If you're playing her specifically for artifact shells, I like the older one better. (I assume you're talking about Saheeli, the Gifted and not Saheeli Rai.)
I plan to test Finale over Secure. I think they're very close, but I want to test to find out.
Cheers, and happy cubbing.
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Overall, this set is pretty light for my 360 unpowered cube. I want to test Ilharg and Liliana. Not sure what else I'll check out off the bat. Based on your write-up, it seems you agree that a 360 upnowered cube could even forego this set entirely.
There's a lot of play to this set though, so if there's something that catches your eye, I recommend giving it a trial run.
I was not surprised to see Garrison ahead of the bottom three. I always had it ranked up highly alongside Rabblemaster, and I was glad to see the data back up that theory. I was surprised about Krenko though. It ranked highly and played really well. I'd give it a go.
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What cuts would you endorse for my cube?
Off the top of my head,
Najeela -> Krenko
Ash Barrens -> Blast Zone (feels bad as I just added Ash Barrens for mana fixing)
Electrolyze -> Saheeli (then Izzet is 3 walkers, I'd probably rather cut Saheeli the Gifted)
If you see any cards that stick out like a sore thumb, let me know. Thanks!
Cheers, and happy cubing.
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I agree with your assessment, since it looks like Kiki and Conscripts are part of your combo package.
Cheers, and happy cubing.
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On the rabblemasters, I agree with your assessments, except for Warboss’ survivability. Although it does not have 3 tougnness, it does not need to attack to produce tokens. So you can still get value from him even in stalled boards. I am putting 3 goblins in.
EDIT: I am most excited about Saheeli. Pyromancer with occasional clone abilities... in mono color. Surely the most interesting design entering my cube this iteration.
Overall not a super exciting set for smaller cubes, but there's some cool stuff in there.
Good job!
PS. Suprised to see Krenko in the number 1 slot. I believe it's hard to theoretically decide which card is the better, the way you did, because there are almost always factors that you don't think about (i.e. Krenko is weak to Karakas (well, and strong if you happen to run it) - how many pts do that yield, etc). Nevertheless, interesting stuff. DS.
Thanks again for all your hard work!
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1. Another rabble-naut. Will pick up one and see for my cube/group what sticks. Your order seems right as Rabblemaster was always the best and garrison has always stood out for the 3 toughness and getting two dudes in a swing. Najeela is in for the candyland scenarios so we will see if I want 3,4, or 5.
2. Blast Zone was my number one for the set. Upping the amount of picks that can make the main deck is awesome, and this is a hugely powerful ability even if you aren't running the crucible package. I will be cutting an artifact or another colorless land as I need all my fixing like ash barrens.
3. You assessment of Sheeli has me very excited as that I what I was hoping for. I will once again hype my rainbow section as this isn't an izzet card except for the fact that deck comes together the most. Plenty of R/X and U/X decks want this. Another Pyromancer type card for Izzet has been on my wishlist for years. This will be in my cube for a long time as spells.dec is my favorite.
4. Much like #3 I was surprised to see this as high for you as me. The Big-Pig or Ill-Hog is such a timmy card people will love. Great to see you find it effective as well.
Not much else on from the set interests me, not because of power level but the interactions in my cube aren't there. Finale of Devastation is the one exception I was hoping it would be GSZ power level but the extra green makes it one step behind apparently.
I still love Diabolic Edict, so I'll be playing both instant-speed ones.
On the combat ratings, I broke the ties for the 2-toughness guys with how effectively they can trade up. Rabblemaster can kill creatures in combat with 3 (or often more) toughness. Najeela can trade with a 2/3 body. Warboss is the only one with a main body that gets completely stonewalled by a 2/3 creature.
And ya, I love Saheeli. Great design and a really flexible card.
Yep! A very fun a flavorful set with lots of cards worth discussing.
And ya, Krenko's kinda a boss.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the content, and ya, Krenko is a good Magic card.
That's why I encouraged people to go out and consume as much cube content as possible regarding War of the Spark. There's a lot of cards in the set worth discussing, and my article only covers my favorite 20.
Glad to see we were on the same wavelength with most of the top cards.
I liked the set, and will be playing quite a few cards from it myself.
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My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
Dreadhorde Invasion also showed up quite a bit in my prerelease and I found it was good (especially on turn 2 in limited) but without additional amass support it has no shot at making my cube.
How about the new Ajani, the Greathearted for cube? I think he might be the real deal since he can do two Nissa, Voice of Zendikar activations without dying and the vigilance granted is a form of self-protection for Ajani so long as you have dudes which you should in G/W. This wasn't on my radar until I saw it wreck people in WAR standard and I realized that Selesnya really isn't that strong of a guild...slotting this in over Qasali Pridemage or even Mirari's Wake feels right.
Invasion seems okay if you can sac the token every turn, but I don't want to be paying life just for a +1/+1 counter.
Ajani is good, but I think I like Ajani Goldmane better. It gets more activations of the global +1/+1 counter activation while still providing vigilance, also gains life, has an ultimate, and is only one color. Outside of superfriends, I think the OG version is just better. Don't want to cut unique gold cards for effects I can find in my monocolor sections for the same price.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
Akrasia, a Custom 360 Cube
New To Cube?
Cubing with Two: A Guide to Two-Player Draft Formats
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
Anyways, thanks for the review! I'm gonna test some extra cards I didn't consider before and that's exactly why I'm reading these ;-)
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
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540> 360 Powered CubeNope, no Kiora for me.
Glad there was some good info for you!
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
I'm not sold on including Krenko (he seems strong, but there are so many Rabblemaster variants), but am excited about options 2-12 enough that I'm trying to figure out how many I can find room for.
EDIT: Not to say that he's a bad variant - I'm just less excited to swap one out for another than to add a card that's more distinct from other things out there.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
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My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
To me Krenko's big advantage i the fact that he has synergies with a lot of power boosting cards. But does that offset the fact that he is quite a bit slower in most games ( where you never get 4 , 5 or 6 hits with him and his buddies.
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!