Magus of the Order
Creature - Human Wizard
G, TAP, sacrifice Magus of the Wizard and another green creature: Search your library for a green creature card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library. (aka Natural Order)
3/3
I've been calling for Magus of the Order for years and now we finally got it. Being a turn slower is whatever, but the real kicker to Magus is that it can be activated at instant speed. Will be testing this out, 3/3 isn't an awful floor, especially for how much upside Natural Order is.
This seems pretty cool. I'm hesitant about sacrificing it and another green creature, but that's consistent with the effect it's mimicking. First card that I'm actively considering, although I have to find the right 4 to cut for it.
I'm hesitant about sacrificing it and another green creature
It's essentially how Natural Order already worked. You're not burning any more cards than you already were with Natural Order. The only difference really is passing the turn + 1 mana.
I don't think the magus cycle has ever really been good enough for most cubes. Magus of the Wheel and Magus of the Will might be the closest. The issue with all of them is that extra turn you have to wait while telegraphing your plans to your opponent.
I don't think the magus cycle has ever really been good enough for most cubes. Magus of the Wheel and Magus of the Will might be the closest. The issue with all of them is that extra turn you have to wait while telegraphing your plans to your opponent.
This really can't be compared to the other Magi. Magus of the Will is generally poor on curve and Magus of the Wheel is symmetrical. This is EASILY the best Magus because its effect actually has a direct impact on the board, and is a natural fit to where its parent card would be played in. Not only that, but this has legit advantages over Natural Order that fit right into a Natural Order deck:
- Can be found with creature tutors (Survival / Fauna Shaman / GSZ / Worldly Tutor / etc)
- Can be pitched to Survival / Fauna Shaman
- Can hold equipment
- Is more recurrable
- Isn't a dead top deck in scenarios where Natural Order would be
Natural order is a very good card, but I don't think add a mana + have to leave a 3 toughness creature in play for a turn + have to make sure whatever elf you were gonna sac doesn't die too makes it still good enough. Easy pass for me.
I think steve_man makes a very good point. There are so many cards in green caring about creatures, that sometimes very powerful cards miss the cut in a green deck just for not being a creature. Having a Natural Order effect on a creature is a really big deal.
On the other hand, this is slower and any removal will thwart your grand plans, which is a significant downside.
I'm thinking this could maybe happily make the cut alongside Natural Order in mid to large sized cubes.
I think my opinion is colored by the fact that I hate every other card in the magus cycle lol - they always underperform and it seems like every time you really need the effect the summoning sickness issue means you don't get it.
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Honestly, this card seems stone-cold unplayable to me.
I have to have this + another guy for this to even do anything. They both have to survive long enough for any of this to happen.
Someone please explain to me why I would ever play this over the original? This is more fragile, slower, and seems objectively worse in every single way. I'm certainly not the best card evaluator but what am I missing here?
I have to have this + another guy for this to even do anything. They both have to survive long enough for any of this to happen.
Floor of 3/3 ain't nothing, and it's not like the other half of the combo is hard to comeby. If it dies, oh well, 4-drops failing the Vindicate test are okay for me if the payoff is worth it.
Someone please explain to me why I would ever play this over the original?
Nobody is saying this, you play this as a supplement to the original.
seems objectively worse in every single way.
This is not true at all. Being an actual creature means it reaps a lot of benefits in a creature based deck (where you'd naturally play Natural Order) that OG NO can't utilize.
I think this is way better than both of them. Elvish Piper is a 1/1 that requires the hit to be in your hand and Prime Speaker Zannifar has way more specific conditions. Sure, Magus isn't re-usable, but the effect is just so much more powerful / easier to pull off.
Every Magus we've ever tested has been unplayably bad, the fact that they have summoning sickness is just so rough. Oftentimes they also cost way more combined mana, which this one thankfully doesn't, but I still don't think this looks good. It's slow, easy to disrupt, and isn't nearly as versatile/flexible as other cards that are sorta like it that require you to pass the turn (Arcane Artisan, Ilharg, the Raze-Boar, etc.)
Another one I'm on the fence about. I like having the redundancy at the Natural Order slot, but I'm not sold on the card itself being great. We'll see I guess.
Honestly, this card seems stone-cold unplayable to me.
I have to have this + another guy for this to even do anything. They both have to survive long enough for any of this to happen.
Someone please explain to me why I would ever play this over the original? This is more fragile, slower, and seems objectively worse in every single way. I'm certainly not the best card evaluator but what am I missing here?
Although the effect is slower, the fact that this activated ability has no sorcery speed restriction means that the creature you get is faster, bringing it in on the opponent's end step is like giving it psuedo-haste. So there's that. It doesn't seem incredible to me, but it's threatening for sure.
This looks like a fairly easy upgrade over Oracle of Mul Daya for me. Natural Order is a top-tier Green card. Is this worse? Certainly, but a worse, more fragile, Natural Order is still a very playable card. Only costing 1 to activate helps this a lot, you can easily play a mana dork to sacrifice on the following turn, activate the ability, and have mana to spare.
This looks like a fairly easy upgrade over Oracle of Mul Daya for me. Natural Order is a top-tier Green card. Is this worse? Certainly, but a worse, more fragile, Natural Order is still a very playable card. Only costing 1 to activate helps this a lot, you can easily play a mana dork to sacrifice on the following turn, activate the ability, and have mana to spare.
Even if you want to add this card, I cannot in good conscience support this cut.
This looks like a fairly easy upgrade over Oracle of Mul Daya for me. Natural Order is a top-tier Green card. Is this worse? Certainly, but a worse, more fragile, Natural Order is still a very playable card. Only costing 1 to activate helps this a lot, you can easily play a mana dork to sacrifice on the following turn, activate the ability, and have mana to spare.
Even if you want to add this card, I cannot in good conscience support this cut.
Yeah this card seems so much worse than oracle to me.
Another one I'm on the fence about. I like having the redundancy at the Natural Order slot, but I'm not sold on the card itself being great. We'll see I guess.
Pretty much this.
I love that this is a lower power option for Cube owners that are looking to keep their Cube loose and not jam it full of high power cards. Seems like a good card for Cube as a format, but not particularly exciting for most veterans of the format that have higher-end Cubes.
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This looks like a fairly easy upgrade over Oracle of Mul Daya for me. Natural Order is a top-tier Green card. Is this worse? Certainly, but a worse, more fragile, Natural Order is still a very playable card. Only costing 1 to activate helps this a lot, you can easily play a mana dork to sacrifice on the following turn, activate the ability, and have mana to spare.
Even if you want to add this card, I cannot in good conscience support this cut.
Every cube is different and in my cube Oracle of Mul Daya hasn't been very good. There's quite a bit of support for cutting this card across the multiple mediums that inform a lot of my inclusion and cut decisions. It's fragile and can't block and live against 2/x creatures, revealing all of your draws is not great, and turn 4 is late for ramp effects. There's just so much efficient ramp out there already that it has become increasingly unnecessary. Also of note, I don't run many extremely high converted cost creatures compared to many lists so that's another reason this has less value in my list.
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StaffMagus of the Order
Creature - Human Wizard
G, TAP, sacrifice Magus of the Wizard and another green creature: Search your library for a green creature card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library. (aka Natural Order)
3/3
I've been calling for Magus of the Order for years and now we finally got it. Being a turn slower is whatever, but the real kicker to Magus is that it can be activated at instant speed. Will be testing this out, 3/3 isn't an awful floor, especially for how much upside Natural Order is.
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StaffIt's essentially how Natural Order already worked. You're not burning any more cards than you already were with Natural Order. The only difference really is passing the turn + 1 mana.
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StaffThis really can't be compared to the other Magi. Magus of the Will is generally poor on curve and Magus of the Wheel is symmetrical. This is EASILY the best Magus because its effect actually has a direct impact on the board, and is a natural fit to where its parent card would be played in. Not only that, but this has legit advantages over Natural Order that fit right into a Natural Order deck:
- Can be found with creature tutors (Survival / Fauna Shaman / GSZ / Worldly Tutor / etc)
- Can be pitched to Survival / Fauna Shaman
- Can hold equipment
- Is more recurrable
- Isn't a dead top deck in scenarios where Natural Order would be
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On the other hand, this is slower and any removal will thwart your grand plans, which is a significant downside.
I'm thinking this could maybe happily make the cut alongside Natural Order in mid to large sized cubes.
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Seems pretty strong.
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I have to have this + another guy for this to even do anything. They both have to survive long enough for any of this to happen.
Someone please explain to me why I would ever play this over the original? This is more fragile, slower, and seems objectively worse in every single way. I'm certainly not the best card evaluator but what am I missing here?
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StaffFloor of 3/3 ain't nothing, and it's not like the other half of the combo is hard to comeby. If it dies, oh well, 4-drops failing the Vindicate test are okay for me if the payoff is worth it.
Nobody is saying this, you play this as a supplement to the original.
This is not true at all. Being an actual creature means it reaps a lot of benefits in a creature based deck (where you'd naturally play Natural Order) that OG NO can't utilize.
I think this is way better than both of them. Elvish Piper is a 1/1 that requires the hit to be in your hand and Prime Speaker Zannifar has way more specific conditions. Sure, Magus isn't re-usable, but the effect is just so much more powerful / easier to pull off.
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Thankfully, natural order is extremely busted
I think it’ll ultimately be a miss for anything but very large cubes but certainly worth testing in the largeish range.
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Although the effect is slower, the fact that this activated ability has no sorcery speed restriction means that the creature you get is faster, bringing it in on the opponent's end step is like giving it psuedo-haste. So there's that. It doesn't seem incredible to me, but it's threatening for sure.
Natural Order is great because it comes out of nowhere.
This is telegraphed a turn ahead of time and its more total mana.
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Even if you want to add this card, I cannot in good conscience support this cut.
Yeah this card seems so much worse than oracle to me.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Pretty much this.
I love that this is a lower power option for Cube owners that are looking to keep their Cube loose and not jam it full of high power cards. Seems like a good card for Cube as a format, but not particularly exciting for most veterans of the format that have higher-end Cubes.
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Every cube is different and in my cube Oracle of Mul Daya hasn't been very good. There's quite a bit of support for cutting this card across the multiple mediums that inform a lot of my inclusion and cut decisions. It's fragile and can't block and live against 2/x creatures, revealing all of your draws is not great, and turn 4 is late for ramp effects. There's just so much efficient ramp out there already that it has become increasingly unnecessary. Also of note, I don't run many extremely high converted cost creatures compared to many lists so that's another reason this has less value in my list.