MTG Salvation

Great article, as usual I really liked it!
I would go as far as saying that your top 20 list for cube is to me the best part of spoiler season and I avidly wait for it at each new set.

I disagree on two points:
I believe heartless act is the best terror variant and will be in every single cubes (peasant cubes with a counter matters theme appart).

Second point, winota, joiner of forces looks like a really really bad card to me. You really need to be in magical Christmas land for it to be anything else than a 4/4 for 4 mana. Requiring non humans to trigger while putting humans into play makes it inconsistant, very hard to draft correctly, and kinds of kills the payoff to me since the biggest humans are only 4 drops (hitting palace jailer is the best you can hope for).

Otherwise I won't be supporting companion in my cube, therefore I will test the folowing cards from Ikoria/C20:

• Heartless act
  
• Luminous broodmoth
  
• Fiend artisan
  
• Kogla, the titan ape
  
• Ethereal forager

The tricycle lands

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment!

@Daemion: You’re welcome! I also think the O’Squidian is a cool card, and I hope it does well for you once you add it.

@JinxedIdol: Thanks! Ya, there’s a lot less in-person testing this time than I usually have, for obvious reasons. I’m not as high on the Artisan as some. I think it’s good and I’m going to be playing it, but I do think the ability is expensive.

@Visserdrix: The Shark is pretty sweet. I just think it falls short of competing against blue’s current suite of 5’s without a deep support for flash.

@Jibux: I agree about the Act and I think it might be the best Terror effect too. Glad you enjoyed the article!

I must admit, I was impressed by winota, joiner of forces in standard.
Agent of treachery is the best payoff, I had forgotten he is a human. And I missed winata could trigger the turn she enters the battlefield, provided you already have non-human creatures into play ready to attack.

I could afterall see winata working in modern/frontiere/Pioneer/historic cubes. Or if you're trying to do something widely different in your boros section of a more powerful cube, but you should play agent of treachery first.

I have no doubt that Winota is perfectly capable of being a competitive cube card. The ceiling is really high.

Quote from en fisk »

Thank for the review as always. For me though it was a very disappointing set. Don't like the companion mechanic, mutate or just the flavor of the cards in general. The first set in a long time where I probably wont be adding any cards (450 cube).

This x1000. Companion just does not feel like Magic to me. Will not be including any cards with companion, which shrinks the list hard. Probably including Heartless Act (best black spot removal ever?), probably including Fiend Artisan but not sure what to cut, and maybe Wilt, but already have Nature's Chant which I think I still prefer for the color flexibility. I've already said in another thread I think Luminous Broodmoth is broken and would not be fun to play with.

Broodmoth is good, but nowhere near "broken". Act and Artisan are both solid. As is Kogla, which is a very respectable green 6-drop. The Triomes are awesome pieces of fixing if you have fetchlands available. Vivien is spectacular and Sharknado is quite respectable.

Even without the Companions, I think this is a very solid set.

That being said, I understand the aversion to the companion mechanic. It does fundamentally change Magic.

I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of this set. Even in a 450 Powered cube, there are some real hits and several contenders. I'm looking at 4-6 additions.

Cheers,
rant

Thanks again for the great summary!

For my EDH cube, I'm looking at sea-dasher, wilt, and heartless act as my definite includes.

My watchlist includes swallow whole, kogla, sharknado, and the broodmoth. Some of the multi-colored legends I wouldn't mind taking for a spin, but I'm leaving a lot of my acquisitions to luck-of-the-pack this time around. For obvious reasons, I have no friggin' clue when I'll get to cube next.

Cheers guys, and thanks for commenting!

My feeling is that the gemrazer will be very disappointing. You made several good points about its drawbacks, but for me the main issue is the lack of a true etb. Whereas Rec Sage really shines with things like blink effects, Greensun Zenith/Birthing Pod effects and even the new Vivien -2 ability, Gemrazer is going to be embarrassing. I’m imagining looking at a Bolas’s Citadel I’m about to lose to, top decking a GSZ and then beginning to weep when I remember I cut my rec sage for a Gemrazer.
Also, I thought it interesting that Lukka wasn’t on the list since red isn’t as tight as some of the other colors and in the right deck it can be another way to put an emrakul into play. He’s probably a little expensive at 5 mana, but I would love to see some drafters get creative with him.
Lastly, I had some thoughts about the companions. As we try to make the drafting portion of the cube as fun as it can possibly be, we have to take into consideration the psychology of it. While we all know that a first-picked Lurrus or Zirda doesn’t have to be played as a companion, I’m worried that if/when a drafter “commits” to a companion, the rest of their draft choices will feel automatic/restricted/forced. “I have X companion so I’m only looking at X types of cards and ignoring the rest.” Any divergence from this later in the draft will be fighting against sunk-cost mentality which is certainly doable, but not fun. The two companions that avoid this are Yorion and Lutri. I think almost all the others will be replaced in cubes as people realize they don’t like the restrictive feeling they can produce during the drafts.
Sorry for the novel, would be super interested to hear your thoughts, and thanks a ton for the great write-up!!!

I don't think anyone is suggesting cutting Rec Sage for Gemrazer, so I wouldn't worry about encountering that scenario.

It's hard to pull off Lukka type effects in the cube, but if you're supporting a Polymorph subtheme, it'll fit right in. There's likely enough support for it now to make it consistent, if you're willing to make the necessary swaps to make it work. You need s lot of cheap non-creature cards that make creatures to get these kinds of effects to be consistent in limited, but the payoff is there if you can dedicate the infrastructure to it.

Companions are dumb. Each cube group should decide how they want to solve that problem on their own. But my cube is going to be a haven from that silliness. It's not Magic.

I'm going to be giving:

Fire Prophecy
Dire Tactics
Song of Creation

some testing in addition to the cards mentioned above.

Song looks like a cool card.