MTG Salvation

What cubable cards has Portal Three Kingdoms given us? I'm afraid I've overlooked some of them. I know there are the functional reprints like Ravages of War, some of which are worthwhile as second copies of powerful (sometimes archetype-defining) cards.


Other cards like Imperial Recruiter are just obscenely powerful outside of their intended vaccum.

Ravages of War, Imperial Seal, Imperial Recruiter, Rolling Earthquake and Burning of Xinye.

Lu Xun, Scholar General isn't bad, but he still missed the cut for me at 500. Strategic Planning can be decent filler for big cubes.

I'd also add Fire Ambush to the list at 540+.

Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed would be an auto-include in an EDH cube's generals section.

False Summoning and Preemptive Strike are great cards to give you a total of 4 Remove Souls in your Cube. I like Strategic Planning a lot more than most. I run Wei Ambush Force which is a filler black aggro card that does the job. I also run Wei Assassins and Predatory Nightstalker as black value creatures with some nice synergies. Imperial Edict is another edict if you have a large Cube and want to give black as many edicts as possible (I do this).

Note that False Summoning and Predatory Nightstalker are not in 3 Kingdoms, but they have their 3 Kingdoms counterparts so you can run multiple copies.

Cards I have previously used in my 540 peasant cube:

Imperial Edict
Wei Night Raiders
Wei Assassins
Famine
Fire Ambush
Ravaging Horde

Cards I am currently running:

Wei Ambush Force
Ambition's Cost (uncommon in Eighth Edition)

I'm considering using Shu Cavalry, as well. I might replace Essence Scatter with Preemptive Strike, just because it's cool.

I run two portal 3k cards in my common cube.

False Defeat
Wei Ambush Force

At common there isn't a huge amount of worthwild reanimation effects. And as such I'm ok with white getting two breath of lifes (that foil 7th one cost me quite a bit)

Wei Ambush Force isn't amazing one way or another. Since it's only a Blade of the sixth pride when attack. It's one of those cards that no one will say you should or shouldn't play.

I'm thinking of getting a Fire Ambush but I'm not sure if I need Incinerate, Volcanic Hammer, Searing Spear and Fire Ambush at the 400 level. I might get one if/when I go up to 450 cards. The white borders are hideous and if I ever get some free time again I should really alter the two I am currently running.

I'm not a huge fan of Horsemanship for the same reason I don't like shadow from a design point of view. So I probably won't ever include any of those guys. The sshadow guys give me enough unblockable dudes as is.

For pauper there's also shu cavalry, which has good creature types.
I think you guys covered all the good legends. There's some cool abilities like cao cao, but they all cost too much.

Loyal Retainers can be a 3 mana breath of life effect for legends.
Imperial Recruiter is amazingly good. Thank god I bought mine when they were cheap.
Imperial Seal is okay, i guess. But there's a fair number of better tutors. Sorcery to the top is kinda ugh.

The CITP stone rain barbarians are good. 1 more than baboons and it hits basics.

I don't really like Wei Assassin Force. Edicting never seems to be very good in the groups I play in, it usually means destroy target saproling or something. I'd rather have shriekmaw.

A lot of other cards like overhwhelming forces are good in EDH (though, it really sucks that they changed it in the oracle to "target player").

Quote from Bullywug_King

I'd also add Fire Ambush to the list at 540+.

True. Even though I think those cards are looking more like 630+ inclusions now, I agree that it's a perfectly serviceable card.

I've always been hesitant on adding P3K, or any Portal set, cards to my cube. I think the most important reason is because i HATE white boarder cards with a passion. I realize that i can get these altered to not be WB but these cards are pricey and it's just such a risk. I also feel that, especially some of the P3K cards, some of these cards were never intended to be used outside of their set.

I think that Ravages of War and Rolling Earthquake should go in any cube that can get them.

I cut Imperial Seal from my cube as sorcery speed hurt it a lot over Vampiric. Even without reveling the card your opponent knows something important is coming from Imperial. That said, if your cube is more combo-focused I think Imperial Seal is an easy include.

I still run and like Lu Xun, he is the best of that effect. That said, he is quite cuttable and I don't think I'll be running him in 12 months.

Burning of Xinye comes down to your thoughts on Wildfire, personally I don't like those cards but if you do you've now got two.

Imperial Recruiter is fine but personally I find him unexciting. The fact that red is getting more and more good 3/x or 4/x creatures (Hero of Oxid Ridge, Hellrider, Zealous Conscripts) has done him no favors.

Fire Ambush is dropping further and further as new burn is printed. At some point you add it in but that point is pretty far down.

Loyal Retainers has some value in a combo-focused cube.

Strategic Planning has some value in a combo-focused or very large cube.

Wei Assassins is an underrated card but there is no need for it with Predatory Nightstalker existing.

Preemptive Strike is an underrated effect but it is the 4th copy of that effect (not counting stuff like Exclude) and I don't really see a cube that would run that many.

As a nit-pick - Burning of Xinye and Wildfire are not exactly functioal reprints. In a 1 on 1 duel they usually function the same but in a multiplayer game Burning of Xinye only hits 1 opponent, and the lands are destroyed vs being sacrificed. This came up this weekend for us while we were playing 2HG and the wording worked very much in one side's favor.

Burning of Xinye

Choose four lands you control and destroy those lands. Then target opponent chooses four lands he or she controls. Destroy those lands. Then Burning of Xinye deals 4 damage to each creature.

Wildfire
Each player sacrifices four lands. Wildfire deals 4 damage to each creature.

Quote from Norl

As a nit-pick - Burning of Xinye and Wildfire are not exactly functioal reprints. In a 1 on 1 duel they usually function the same but in a multiplayer game Burning of Xinye only hits 1 opponent, and the lands are destroyed vs being sacrificed. This came up this weekend for us while we were playing 2HG and the wording worked very much in one side's favor.

Burning of Xinye

Choose four lands you control and destroy those lands. Then target opponent chooses four lands he or she controls. Destroy those lands. Then Burning of Xinye deals 4 damage to each creature.

Wildfire
Each player sacrifices four lands. Wildfire deals 4 damage to each creature.

Yeah, the oracle wording on Xinye and Overwhelming Forces really nerfed their power level.

Here only to note that Loyal Retainers and Diaochan, Artful Beauty are both being reprinted in Commander's Arsenal. They were both mentioned above, and they'll now be shiny and in new borders.

Diaochan is pretty bad, why are they even reprinting it?

Quote from Blimpy

Diaochan is pretty bad, why are they even reprinting it?

It's good in Commander. This product isn't aim at cube.

Quote from OP_Forever

It's good in Commander. This product isn't aim at cube.

I didn't think it was aimed at cube, I didn't think it was good in any format. It makes sense it's good in EDH.