It's all good. Just wanted people to know that Karn has T8'd a pro tour and won a World Championship in Standard, and he's been around for less than 6 months. Card's real good in both constructed and in the cube.
Think powered cubes with a lot of artifacts might be the literal best format for him... As a card advantage engine, he's solid, but nothing spectacular.. a bit slow, but resilient. It's in decks that are loaded with artifacts where he becomes a broken magic card.
In artifact heavy formats like Vintage, his bustedness is offset by how degenerate the format is anyway... and costing 4 mana is a lot. Cube's average power is quite a bit lower, but he can achieve similar levels of upside.
Man-o'-War is the original bounce spell attached to a creature and certainly one of the best. There have been several near reprints in Aether Adept and Exclusion Mage, as well as more expensive versions. One variant that has stood out recently has been Reflector Mage. Man-o'-War can provide a ton of tempo against expensive creatures, and against smaller creatures can trade while still giving some valuable tempo. It also has some more combo-rific uses bouncing your own creatures to reuse enters the battlefield effects.
BONUS QUESTION
Attaching a bounce spell to a creature moves Unsummon from being mostly unplayable in cube to being much more powerful. What other spell effects would you like to see attached to a creature in order to make them more playable in cube?
Man-o'-War is a classic, and one of my favorites. It's a great tempo creature, a good target for blink/bounce decks and has flexible applications that disrupt the opponent's gameplay and can allow you to re-cast your ETB critters if the need arises. Reflector Mage is better in exactly WU, but everywhere else ...this guy is still the gold standard for this kind of effect, IMHO.
Dark-Dwellers do an interesting impression of Snapcaster Mage. In the best possible case where you get/want to play a 3 CMC spell from your graveyard at sorcery speed, then they're upgrading the body from a 2/1 to a 4/4 menace for the same total mana cost. However, you lose a lot of flexibility for this best case scenario. You will never be able to recast countermagic or cast this on your opponent's end step, and the mana efficiency gets worse the cheaper of a card you recast, not to mention that you're waiting until turn 5 no matter what.
Dark-Dwellers is an interesting curve-topper in aggro, letting you rebuy a burn spell either for face damage or to clear out a blocker and then leaving a relevant body if that didn't close up the game. It also fits well into more midrange or controlling red decks by giving a mana efficient 2-for-1.
BONUS QUESTION
Some cubes support mostly / only aggressive red decks with smaller creature and burn spells, but many also support midrange or controlling red/X decks. What cards do you think are most important to support Big Red?
Dark Dwellers is a good card in a long list of great 5-drops.
I love Wildfire in red; one of my favorite archetypes. Red also contributes to reanimator and the artifact.dec too. As well as spells matters and the ETB triggers shenanigans.dec. And it's a strong support color for token decks and sacrifice shells now too. Red does (and should do, IMO) a lot more than just aggro.
Love me some Dark Dwellers, I've been thrilled that Red has become a secondary graveyard-matters color in my cube because the support cards starting from the first Innistrad block tended to be best in red, like Faithless Looting (which I consider one of the most important red cards printed in the last decade for cube. I'd play Dark Dwellers down to 450 probably, and would feel bad cutting it in a 360 cube because it offers enough interesting play. In any red deck worth its salt, you'll have at least one "deal 3 to any target" effect in your yard by turn 5, and 5 mana to get a 4/4 menace and a bolt is a pretty satisfying baseline, and I've had much spicer plays than that.
One of the biggest equipment / vehicle there is, Skysovereign asks a lot of you in terms of mana and creatures to crew it, but gives a lot in return. Its titan-esque ability to kill something when it comes into play and then again every time you attack with it, in addition to its 6 power in the air, lets it quickly take over any board it's played on. Unlike a titan, it's not great to cheat into play, because you still need to be able to crew it.
BONUS QUESTION
There's a limit to how many vehicles / equipment / creature auras you can play in most decks, because they require creatures to do anything. Is there a limit to how many of these effects you would play in your cube, assuming an infinite number of "good enough" ones. If so, how close to that limit are you?
I love Skysovereign, it gives reach (sometimes literally!) to green-based midrange decks, and something for the mana dorks to do when all the explosiveness in the beginning has turned into a board stall. It immediately effects the board, has great art, and is always surprising me with how versatile it is. At 720, I don't see cutting it anytime soon, and I'd probably keep it around as small as a 450-540 cube, it's just a fun and flexible way for a lot of decks to get there.
Champion combines a reasonable body along with a card selection. If you can afford to wait until late game, eternalize will pay off big with card draw + a bigger body. As always, looting is especially valuable in reanimator decks, but all blue decks can get respectable value off of a blocker to hold off opposing aggro decks while they sculpt their hand.
Champion is 100% on point for the style of card I like to go for in blue. I ran Sea Gate Oracle for the longest time and very happily replaced him with this guy.
For a color that's so devoted to attacking, red's 3 drops aren't that great of solo attackers. There are now 4 good token producers, most of which want to be attacking, but they're not so impressive without the tokens they make. Red 3's also have utility or combo creature like Imperial Recruiter and Feldon of the Third Path , but they don't fit very well in aggro. Ferocidon has a good body for a 3 drop and evasion in the form of menace, as well as punishing your opponent for playing blockers. Incidental life gain hate never hurts either.
Attacking red 3's used to be lacking, but now that we have 4 better options in Rabblemaster/Garrison/Najeela/Warboss, I think the need for critters like Ferocidon and the 3-power menace guy has waned.
In unpowered 360, I found I had to slow the red deck down, and made Red focus more on Purphoros, God of the Forge. I like Ferocidon as a hate card that other red decks can play against Purphoros and the multitude of other token strategies in my cube. If I were to let red really be optimized, I'd probably cut both Purph and Ferocidon, but in the right cube Ferocidon can have some power.
The next few cards will be coming from the most recent update to MTGO's legacy cube, since that seems to be a good source of cards that haven't been talked about in this thread.
A 5 mana 3/3 needs to do a lot to justify its cost. Her upper limit is very high (Fastbond and keep drawing until you run out of lands), but her average case of draw 1 to 2 cards a turn isn't too impressive. Playing lands is definitely something green is good at and green really appreciates extra card draw (see the popularity of Harmonize compared to Concentrate). However, to play Tatyova, you also need to be blue, which has many higher-powered card draw spells.
Tatyova's actual on-board effect is very good, and so she's usually a must-remove target when she comes down.
...Unfortunately, it's easy to do so. This card's lackluster body and lack of any relevant abilities mean that she dies to almost everything. Not a place you want your value engine to be. Ironically, this might have been more interesting as an enchantment with no body whatsoever. Alternatively, if she had a 4th point of toughness I'd be much happier to play her. As-is, she's just way too fragile for most cube environments IMO.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
In artifact heavy formats like Vintage, his bustedness is offset by how degenerate the format is anyway... and costing 4 mana is a lot. Cube's average power is quite a bit lower, but he can achieve similar levels of upside.
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Man-o'-War is the original bounce spell attached to a creature and certainly one of the best. There have been several near reprints in Aether Adept and Exclusion Mage, as well as more expensive versions. One variant that has stood out recently has been Reflector Mage. Man-o'-War can provide a ton of tempo against expensive creatures, and against smaller creatures can trade while still giving some valuable tempo. It also has some more combo-rific uses bouncing your own creatures to reuse enters the battlefield effects.
BONUS QUESTION
Attaching a bounce spell to a creature moves Unsummon from being mostly unplayable in cube to being much more powerful. What other spell effects would you like to see attached to a creature in order to make them more playable in cube?
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Dark-Dwellers do an interesting impression of Snapcaster Mage. In the best possible case where you get/want to play a 3 CMC spell from your graveyard at sorcery speed, then they're upgrading the body from a 2/1 to a 4/4 menace for the same total mana cost. However, you lose a lot of flexibility for this best case scenario. You will never be able to recast countermagic or cast this on your opponent's end step, and the mana efficiency gets worse the cheaper of a card you recast, not to mention that you're waiting until turn 5 no matter what.
Dark-Dwellers is an interesting curve-topper in aggro, letting you rebuy a burn spell either for face damage or to clear out a blocker and then leaving a relevant body if that didn't close up the game. It also fits well into more midrange or controlling red decks by giving a mana efficient 2-for-1.
BONUS QUESTION
Some cubes support mostly / only aggressive red decks with smaller creature and burn spells, but many also support midrange or controlling red/X decks. What cards do you think are most important to support Big Red?
I love Wildfire in red; one of my favorite archetypes. Red also contributes to reanimator and the artifact.dec too. As well as spells matters and the ETB triggers shenanigans.dec. And it's a strong support color for token decks and sacrifice shells now too. Red does (and should do, IMO) a lot more than just aggro.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
One of the biggest equipment / vehicle there is, Skysovereign asks a lot of you in terms of mana and creatures to crew it, but gives a lot in return. Its titan-esque ability to kill something when it comes into play and then again every time you attack with it, in addition to its 6 power in the air, lets it quickly take over any board it's played on. Unlike a titan, it's not great to cheat into play, because you still need to be able to crew it.
BONUS QUESTION
There's a limit to how many vehicles / equipment / creature auras you can play in most decks, because they require creatures to do anything. Is there a limit to how many of these effects you would play in your cube, assuming an infinite number of "good enough" ones. If so, how close to that limit are you?
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Champion combines a reasonable body along with a card selection. If you can afford to wait until late game, eternalize will pay off big with card draw + a bigger body. As always, looting is especially valuable in reanimator decks, but all blue decks can get respectable value off of a blocker to hold off opposing aggro decks while they sculpt their hand.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
For a color that's so devoted to attacking, red's 3 drops aren't that great of solo attackers. There are now 4 good token producers, most of which want to be attacking, but they're not so impressive without the tokens they make. Red 3's also have utility or combo creature like Imperial Recruiter and Feldon of the Third Path , but they don't fit very well in aggro. Ferocidon has a good body for a 3 drop and evasion in the form of menace, as well as punishing your opponent for playing blockers. Incidental life gain hate never hurts either.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
[180 classic cube]
Tatyova, Benthic Druid (Replacing Kiora's Follower)
A 5 mana 3/3 needs to do a lot to justify its cost. Her upper limit is very high (Fastbond and keep drawing until you run out of lands), but her average case of draw 1 to 2 cards a turn isn't too impressive. Playing lands is definitely something green is good at and green really appreciates extra card draw (see the popularity of Harmonize compared to Concentrate). However, to play Tatyova, you also need to be blue, which has many higher-powered card draw spells.
I wish she had a more confidently favorable comparison to Kavu Climber
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
...Unfortunately, it's easy to do so. This card's lackluster body and lack of any relevant abilities mean that she dies to almost everything. Not a place you want your value engine to be. Ironically, this might have been more interesting as an enchantment with no body whatsoever. Alternatively, if she had a 4th point of toughness I'd be much happier to play her. As-is, she's just way too fragile for most cube environments IMO.