MTG Salvation

Seeing as how the set is essentially halfway spoiled and that most of the mythics and rares are known quantities, I thought it might be time to start this thread. This set presents a very unique challenge of implementing what is for-some-intents-and-purposes, a sixth color. Thusly, I expect that inclusions from this set are going to vary wildly from person-to-person, dependent not only by the SIZE of the cube, but also by the amount of colorless support he/she is willing to enable.

To begin, I'll begin by saying I have a large cube (currently under reconstruction, so the link in my signature is not quite accurate), so my potential inclusions will be more numerous than most:

COLORLESS:
+Kozilek, the Great Distortion
+Endbringer (maybe)
+Reality Smasher
+Thought-Knot Seer

WHITE:
+Eldrazi Displacer
+Linvala, the Preserver
+Oath of Gideon (maybe)

BLUE:
+Crush of Tentacles
+Oath of Jace
+Sphinx of the Final Word
+Dimensional Infiltrator

BLACK:
+Bearer of Silence
+Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

RED:
+Chandra, Flamecaller
+Eldrazi Obligator
+Embodiment of Fury
+Goblin Dark-Dwellers
+Oath of Chandra (maybe)
+Reckless Bushwhacker
+Goblin Freerunner

GREEN:
+Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
+Oath of Nissa
+Sylvan Advocate
+World Breaker (maybe)

MULTICOLOR:
+Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
+Jori En, Ruin Diver (maybe)
+Reflector Mage
+Stormchaser Mage

LAND:
+Mirrorpool
+Sea Gate Wreckage
+Hissing Quagmire
+Needle Spires
+Wandering Fumarole


Cards with competitive "surge" costs, but still unlikely to be included: Overwhelming Denial, Fall of the Titans

Lets open up some discussion!


EDIT #1: Added Dimensional Infiltrator and Goblin Freerunner

Sure hits:

• Bearer of Silence
  
• Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
  
• Reaver Drone
  
• Sylvan Advocate
  
• Reflector Mage
  
• Hissing Quagmire
  
• Needle Spires
  
• Wandering Fumarole
  
• Reality Smasher
  
• Sea Gate Wreckage

plus a bunch of Wastes for the basic land box

Unsure, but still testing:

• Eldrazi Displacer
  
• Oath of Jace
  
• Dimensional Infiltrator
  
• Chandra, Flamecaller
  
• Oath of Nissa
  
• Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
  
• Matter Reshaper

Colorless Mana Production Watchlist

• Awakening Zone
  
• Blighted Woodland
  
• Boreal Druid
  
• Channel
  
• Kor Haven
  
• Myriad Landscape
  
• Tendo Ice Bridge
  
• Thought Vessel

plus all the remaining Painlands I'm not currently running

Here's my current want-to-test list for our 540 powered cube, with 30 C sources, plus free Wastes. I guess we could add Boreal Druid, Tendo Ice Bridge, the Talismans or Filterlands if that turns out to be not enough. I'm still sceptical of the C package though.

CCCCC:
Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Reality Smasher
Sea Gate Wreckage

11111:
Edit: Captain's Claws

WWWWW:
Eldrazi Displacer (C)

UUUUU:
Edit: Dimensional Infiltrator (C)

BBBBB:
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Bearer of Silence (C)

RRRRR:
Goblin Dark-Dwellers (unsure)

GGGGG:
Sylvan Advocate
Oath of Nissa (unsure)

WURBG:
Hissing Quagmire
Needle Spires
Wandering Fumarole
Reflector Mage
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim (unsure)

Edit: and I guess the Planeswalkers would deserve testing too, although I don't really like either.

I am looking at:

• Hissing Quagmire
• Needle Spires
• Wandering Fumarole
• Sylvan Advocate
• Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• Bearer of Silence(maybe)
• Reflector Mage
• Mirrorpool (Maybe- I do run a full set of painlands, so would be easily activated)

Adds
Hissing Quagmire
Needle Spires
Wandering Fumarole
Swaps
Oath of Nissa <-- Life from the Loam
Sylvan Advocate <-- ?
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet <-- Brutal Hordechief
Reflector Mage <-- Sphinx's Revelation

Includes
Sylvan Advocate

Testing
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Chandra, Flamecaller

A pretty disappointing set currently, but I'm still hopeful. I don't have that high of a hope for the testing cards.

What I'm going to try, most likely:

Kalitas
Sylvan Advocate
Oath of Nissa
Kozilek
Reality Smasher
Void Grafter
All 3 manlands
Bearer of Silence
Chandra
Nissa
Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Eldrazi Displacer

Unrelated, but I'm really glad to see you back posting, KMAYER.

These are the cards we tested last weekend in my powered 540 for 3 drafts. I actually didn't get to draft many of them so all of these reports are secondhand or what I saw in other games while I was playing:

Definite:

Needle Spires: The Boros player isn't happy with this manland but he did get to activate it & connect one game when he flooded.
Wandering Fumarole: Didn't see a lot of play as I don't think U/R was really drafted that night (which was unusual).
Hissing Quagmire: The deathtouch was very relevant with this creature.

Maybe:

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: This card was a house. The lifelink absolutely crushed the aggro deck but this card was still great in other matchups. Killing something & making a zombie was just insane value. Recommended for testing in all Cube sizes.

Oath of Jace: We brought this in for Compulsive Research. It played pretty well. In one game specifically the player got to scry at least 5 different turns and some of those were with multiple walkers on the board! I think we're going to make this switch for at least one block.

Linvala, the Preserver: The best value from this was when a player reanimated it from his opponent's graveyard and got two big fliers. The actual owner of the card said it was solid for him.

Reflector Mage: Okay, I did have this card with AEther Adept & Man O War in the same deck. I think I cut the Adept and only ran two. A relevant question is how many of these effects does a Cube want? I only got to bounce a token with it as I didn't draw it any other times

Goblin Dark-Dwellers: Player drafted it & was really excited but it was unimpressive for him. He admitted that most of the time he accelerated it out with Lotus or other fast mana so it wasn't at its best. I still think this will make the cut at 540. The deck it was in had a ton of sweet targets so I think it was in the right home for it.

Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: This was the surprise card of the night. It went in multiple decks and was consistently a house. My cube doesn't support blaggro but it does fill a spot that seems necessary for B/W decks to get an early board presence. Much life was gained and this card ate a ton of removal because of how it really affected the board. B/W is arguably the best guild and this card doesn't beat Lingering Souls, Vindicate or Sorin LOI. It's probably not better than Sorin SV but if you wanted some diversity in your Cube I could see it being included as the #4 Orzhov card. I'm really glad I tested this because I undervalued it bigtime.

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: The resident green drafter liked this fine but it's just not going to be good enough for my Cube. I had a base-green deck and it was 3rd to last pick in the entire draft. It was Nissa vs some mid-level green creature (can't remember which one) and I took the creature. That was the moment that cemented what I suspected...that this Nissa isn't good enough for my Cube.

Still not sure what to do about adding a "colorless matters" section but that wasn't a factor last weekend.

TL;DR: Mediocre guild manlands are still good, all Cubes should test Kalitas & all Cubes with more than 3 guild slots should test Ayli.

Not sure about my additions yet, but I;ve been proxying Ayli since she was spoiled and I agree with kingneb. She is a beast.

Sylvan Advocate, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Chandra, Flamecaller and the three manlands so far.
Very unsure about adding C cards, I don't think I can support them.

going to mess around with an eldrazi sub theme and add an eldrazi temple to the cube, see what kind of main deck percentage it gets in "fair" eldrazi decks and if players enjoy it.

Testing a lot but expecting not much from this set to stick.

Auto:
Needle spires
Hissing quagmire
(Not playing u/r land due to wanting u/r filter for Kiki combo , and I run 2x fetches)

90%+ include:
Kalitas, traitor of ghet
Kozilek

50%+ include:
Chandra


35%+ include:
Sylvan advocate
Dimensional infiltrator
Eldrazi displacer (think this has highest upside)
Bearer of silence

25%+
Reflector Mage
Ayli eternal pilgrim (good card but so hard to justify cutting Gerard's verdict.. Love that card)

10+%
Mirror pool
Reality smasher
4 mana 4/4 thought seize eldrazi
Void grafter

Watch list:
Oath of nissa
Seagate wreckage

Most of those are part of a "wastes + eldrazi temple" package I'm going to try out. Without that support , definitely won't play them

Includes:

• Linvala, the Preserver
  
• Bearer of Silence
  
• Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
  
• Sylvan Advocate
  
• Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
  
• Hissing Quagmire
  
• Needle Spires
  
• Wandering Fumarole

Watch List:

• Chandra, Flamecaller
  
• Oath of Nissa
  
• Kozilek, the Great Distortion

My test list is very short:

• Sylvan Advocate
  
• Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
  
• Hissing Quagmire

So far:

In:
Hissing Quagmire
Needle Spires
Wandering Fumarole
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Sylvan Advocate

Maybe:
Reality Smasher
Sea Gate Wreckage
Mirrorpool
Bearer of Silence

Quote from LucidVision »

Ayli eternal pilgrim (good card but so hard to justify cutting Gerard's verdict.. Love that card)

Looking at your list why not cut Tidehollow Sculler instead of Gerard's Verdict for Ayli?

My Includes so far but so many other cards are also coming in at the same time so it feels like a very big update. I'll know by friday if I want to include support and throw that list together.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Goblin Dark Dwellers
Chandra, Firecaller
Sylvan Advocate
Reflector Mage
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Needle Spires
Hissing Quagmire
Wandering Fumarole

For me it's probably going to just be the 3 manlands. Kalitas and Reflector Mage are maybes. I tend to be conservative though; I try to only add cards to the cube I think will stay in for a while.

My potential adds:

White:

Blue:

Black:
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Red:
Chandra, Flamecaller

Green:
Sylvan Advocate

Colorless:
Matter Reshaper
Reality Smasher

Guilds:
Wandering Fumarole
Hissing Quagmire
Needle Spires
Reflector Mage
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim


Hoping to have a few more when everything is revealed but I am more than happy with the list as of now.

I'm looking at:

Wandering Fumarole
Needle Spires

Bearer of Silence
Sylvan Advocate
Kalitas

If there is enough <> upside, also might interested in a few other cards like some combination of Reality Smasher, Eldrazi Displacer, Matter Reshaper, Mirrorpool, Thought-Knot Seer and Dimensional Infiltrator. The <> cards are wacky and a lot of fun. I'm also deliberating Hissing Quagmire which is obviously great, but Meren has been so much fun and better than expected.

From what I try of her, Chandra is a very fun card. Sure, she cost 6 mana, but Red got very few decent card at 6 mana and beyond so Chandra got very little competition. I would highly recommend her to cube manager who want to diversify what red can do or want to give red control (which doesn't have much card at higher cmc currently) a bit more tools.

Kalitas is okay, nothing exciting as I expected. It IS a good card, though. The body could be better but overall he more than pull his weight. Since there isn't much competition at 4 black cmc, it can probably stick around.

Sylvan Advocate is awesome. Probably the best card to come from this set right now.

None of the manland in this set makes it into 360. But that's not surprising. It's 3 of the stronger guild.

450 Cube: So far I am sticking with the 3 man lands. I am awaiting for the set to finish to conclude if is worth it. The rest (Sylvan advocate, Kalitas) I am hesitant but curious.
Artifact Cube: Stone Haven Outfitter and Weapons Trainer (baby Jor!)
Pauper Cube: Scion Summoner, Crumbling Vestige? Still waiting a more commons will be previewed late in the season.

540 here, the duals and Sylvan Advocate are the only includes I know I'm doing. Bearer of Silence and Eldrazi Displacer are pretty solid maybes. I think I have enough pains and filters and rocks to at least make their abilities usable in the right deck and they have find bodies without colorless. I won't be putting Waste in the land box though. Chandra and Goblin Dank-Dwellers are cool but I'm really unsure about them still.

Finally got some testing in with new cards:

Reflector mage: Inconclusive. Played against me. Bounced a hornet token in a spot where I had just cast hornet queen, wasn't when the card was meant to shine heh.

Needle spires: Inconclusive, but leaning positive. played a few matches where it didnt get activated, but one time where I equipped it with jitte, getting 2x activations. Thinking the number of times this card gets pumped for > 4 damage, or gets to hit players with swords/jitte 2x is non neglible. After seeing it in action, I now think needle spires is a mid-high tier 2 manland for cube (with the abundance of equipment and white anthems).

Kalitas, traitor of ghet:
Very strong first impression. I played it in a black agro/sac style deck with a bunch of recursive agressive creatures, bitterblosm/lingering souls, skullclamp, falkenrath artistocrat, goblin bombardment, damnation. Did work multiple times, and seemed powerful. Lived the dream of attacking by itself into 3 agressive creatures, gaining 3 life (was at 3-4 life at the time) casting damnation , thus having a board of 3 zombies to my opponents empty board.

Later in the cube, it interfered with my opponents recurring nightmare shenanagins. Not much, as he still got to reanimate atarka and eat kalitas, but the situation helped me imagine how relevant the exile ability can be.
Small sample, but confident enough to say that kalitas is the real deal. I think it's easily 360 material.

I listed Kali as an add but wasn't sold on him, but that sounds pretty great. Definitely onboard now.

Kalitas, Captain's Claws, and Sylvan Advocate are the only things that make it for my Modern 360 in my opinion. Even though I LIKE some other cards, I just don't have any cuts I want to make. Weirdly, I will probably not be adding anything from this set at all, at least right away.