Well, true. I guess it's hard to know if the issue is with my cube design or just the playgroup; I've got more blue aggro than I used to have, so I'm going to trial adding black aggro support back and see how people draft.
We do get overlap with Aristocrats and stuff like Black-Green Aggro, Black-blue aggresive midrange, and the occasional Pox or land destroyer.
Yes; Aristocrats is an archetype I've really been looking at pushing lately, since it gives me that overlap so I can justify the cross-over with black aggro / pox decks to be able to support both. I'm just not sure if it's good enough for powered cube specifically, when you can be doing so much more broken stuff than saccing a few dudes for value.
This is true of red aggro. And white aggro. And dedicated white control cards. And dedicated black control cards. And archetype-support cards. And every other theater support card, really.
I mentioned red already, but it has more overlap than the black aggro cards do as there are some good red tempo cards that can still fit into counterburn or boros decks. Same with white; I don't support white weenie fully anymore either since Savannah Lions just doesn't cut it anymore. Instead, I pushed white more into midrange/control/token strategies, so Boros tokens (with battlecry/raid) is a good aggro strategy in my cube now, while still allowing overlap on the card choices.
Dedicated control cards are specific to an archetype, but still have overlap between actual decks. You can still play white control cards in a GW ramp deck, a bant deck, UW control, monowhite, etc, and similar for black. Archetype support cards, again, I've tried to make sure there's enough overlap to justify them being in the cube (e.g. looting overlaps for reanimate, loam, welder, etc).
I completely agree with you that you need to support a wide range of archetypes, and honestly I do feel like aggro needs to be pushed a bit more in my cube. But in my experience, with my playgroup, that place isn't in black. 95% of drafts would see the last 5 cards of every pack being black, because nobody wanted to play black aggro, and taking them early forced you into that deck since you couldn't pivot to anything else. If that's the state of an archetype in the cube, why waste slots that could be used for cards that will actually get drafted?
I hope that the conversation around black aggro shifts away from "IF you support black aggro" at some point.
My issue with black aggro as a cube designer is that the cards have no overlap with any other archetypes, so you're either all in on black aggro or your deck just blows. You can splash into rakdos to get some reach and make overlap there, but you're still essentially in the same deck.
Red aggro has a similar problem, but at least there's some overlap in a lot of the cards - you can make a Boros aggro/midrange deck, UR counterburn, etc. If nobody is actively drafting black aggro, you'd regularly see all of the cards wheeling around as last picks for the sideboard chaff pile.
I made the conscious choice to cut all of my black aggro support, and push black as more of a combo enabling support colour. Plenty of disruption, discard effects to enable reanimate, and a minor stax package, though I'm iffy on that since it's still got the issue of being mostly useless outside of one archetype.
The result of my changes are that black isn't routinely the last 4 cards in every pack, and it's a more widely drafted colour. However, it's never really the primary colour of a deck, so that's the tradeoff I chose to make.
I finally get a recruiter in this set but no ravages. Hopefully we get imperial seal. My cube is wanting this portal cards but I have been unwilling to pay the price for non reserve list stuff.
Personally I just run two (different art) copies of Armageddon in my cube. They're literally the same card anyway, just one costs infinitely more money due to scarcity. I did the same with Wildfire/Burning of Xinye.
Still excited to have Imperial Recruiter though, and holding out hope for Seal.
These look great! Normally the prebuilts are complete garbage, but these look like they'd actually be good enough to take along to an FNM and not feel like you're just playing with someone's discarded draft chaff. Assuming they stay at MSRP, I'll be grabbing one to mess around in standard again for the first time in quite a few years!
No, no love for Tetzimoc. I don't know how big my cube would need to be before I'd want a 4th black 6cc creature, but I think Grave Titan, Massacre Wurm and Noxious Gearhulk are all significantly better. And I only run one of those 3 cards.
Hmm.. good point. I hadn't actually gone back to look at what I'd cut for it. That's a shame, it's such a spicy effect, but I agree it doesn't beat out GT/Gearhulk.
Thanks again as always. I was overseas for the whole spoiler season so it's nice to just be able to come for your writeups every set and find out which cards I should be looking for.
Spyglass looks like a nice one, looking forward to slotting that into cube. Chart the Course will find a home as well, draw/discard effects are at a super premium in my cube as my players love getting graveyard value.
As much as I know Carnage Tyrant is an amazing 6 drop, I just can't bring myself to run such a boring fatty. At the end of the day cube is about splashy fun for me, so I'm going to be giving this guy a miss.
Have you had a chance to test out Search for Azcanta yet? I love me some value lands, but I feel like it might be a little slow given how tight blue is these days.
Thanks so much for writing your reviews every set, I look forward to it every release! It's sometimes hard for me to evaluate cards in a vacuum as I don't get to cube often enough to run speculation tests, so it's great to see your experience with some of the options.
This is a pretty shallow set for cube sadly, but I was surprised to see a couple of cards omitted from at least the top 20 - I think The Locust God* is actually a really good option for Izzet, especially given the recent flashback rule change pretty much pushing Fire//Ice out of contention for those that still run it.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded is also a pretty interesting one, I think it's a good option for cubes with good reanimate support. Being able to tutor any bullet you need out of your deck is pretty amazing - the lack of lifelink makes him more of a liability than Griselbrand, but I think they're quite close in power. Cheating this guy out means you've got exactly the answer you need at any given time* (assuming there's an answer in your deck), which makes it pretty hard to lose the game.
Other than that, Magus of the Crucible is a pretty nice card for saturation as you said, and it's always nice to get some more utility shatter cards. Definitely looking forward to playing with the new Nicol Bolas, I love big splashy cards in my cube!
* Edit - Wow, I just reread Razaketh and realised it had the additional cost of sacrificing a creature. WAY less powerful than I thought!
* Edit 2 - Locust god, not scarab god
Thanks for another great writeup mate, I look out for your post after every set to make sure I didn't miss any sleeper cards. In this case, you pointed out the combo interaction with Combat Celebrant - I didn't even notice this, but as my cube already supports the kiki/twin combo it's nice to have another piece available, especially since it has some crossover value in aggro decks. Will definitely be adding this guy!
Surprised not to see Glorybringer on the list - a reusable kavu strapped to a dragon is pretty gross, no love? I think I'd also like to try Cast Out, but the 4CC slot is so super stacked in white it's really hard to find room. A lot of tough choices in this set, it's pretty great for cube overall!
I also think Regal Caracal is a pretty good choice, I'd say any lists currently running Cloudgoat Ranger should consider swapping it out for this guy. You get a similar effect, but trade in the ability to jump for a lord effect on a surprisingly decent amount of cats that a lot of cubes run at 2-3 CMC. Running this guy out after a Brimaz would be pretty nice!
Second of all, I honestly don't know where this "bad reputation" came from.
It's mostly from the Rumour Mill. A lot of people will only come to MTGS for spoiler season, and the average quality of players/posts for spoiled cards is poor at best. A lot of people with no idea how to evaluate cards weighing in with their unwanted opinions, and generally posting about how [Bad Card] makes [Bad Deck] viable now!
Thanks for another great review! I always stop by to see if I've missed any sleeper cards, but in this case I just confirmed that the set was as disappointing as I thought. Still, a couple of inclusions came out of it, and white could always use another 3 drop!
Overall not a super exciting set for smaller cubes, but there's some cool stuff in there.
Yes; Aristocrats is an archetype I've really been looking at pushing lately, since it gives me that overlap so I can justify the cross-over with black aggro / pox decks to be able to support both. I'm just not sure if it's good enough for powered cube specifically, when you can be doing so much more broken stuff than saccing a few dudes for value.
I mentioned red already, but it has more overlap than the black aggro cards do as there are some good red tempo cards that can still fit into counterburn or boros decks. Same with white; I don't support white weenie fully anymore either since Savannah Lions just doesn't cut it anymore. Instead, I pushed white more into midrange/control/token strategies, so Boros tokens (with battlecry/raid) is a good aggro strategy in my cube now, while still allowing overlap on the card choices.
Dedicated control cards are specific to an archetype, but still have overlap between actual decks. You can still play white control cards in a GW ramp deck, a bant deck, UW control, monowhite, etc, and similar for black. Archetype support cards, again, I've tried to make sure there's enough overlap to justify them being in the cube (e.g. looting overlaps for reanimate, loam, welder, etc).
I completely agree with you that you need to support a wide range of archetypes, and honestly I do feel like aggro needs to be pushed a bit more in my cube. But in my experience, with my playgroup, that place isn't in black. 95% of drafts would see the last 5 cards of every pack being black, because nobody wanted to play black aggro, and taking them early forced you into that deck since you couldn't pivot to anything else. If that's the state of an archetype in the cube, why waste slots that could be used for cards that will actually get drafted?
My issue with black aggro as a cube designer is that the cards have no overlap with any other archetypes, so you're either all in on black aggro or your deck just blows. You can splash into rakdos to get some reach and make overlap there, but you're still essentially in the same deck.
Red aggro has a similar problem, but at least there's some overlap in a lot of the cards - you can make a Boros aggro/midrange deck, UR counterburn, etc. If nobody is actively drafting black aggro, you'd regularly see all of the cards wheeling around as last picks for the sideboard chaff pile.
I made the conscious choice to cut all of my black aggro support, and push black as more of a combo enabling support colour. Plenty of disruption, discard effects to enable reanimate, and a minor stax package, though I'm iffy on that since it's still got the issue of being mostly useless outside of one archetype.
The result of my changes are that black isn't routinely the last 4 cards in every pack, and it's a more widely drafted colour. However, it's never really the primary colour of a deck, so that's the tradeoff I chose to make.
Given core sets are generally pretty reprint-heavy, maybe you should just do a top 10 for them?
Personally I just run two (different art) copies of Armageddon in my cube. They're literally the same card anyway, just one costs infinitely more money due to scarcity. I did the same with Wildfire/Burning of Xinye.
Still excited to have Imperial Recruiter though, and holding out hope for Seal.
Hmm.. good point. I hadn't actually gone back to look at what I'd cut for it. That's a shame, it's such a spicy effect, but I agree it doesn't beat out GT/Gearhulk.
Excited to give the Daredevil a try mostly because it's cool, other than that it's a very boring set.
*Edit*
Actually, I just noticed, no love for Tetzimoc, Primal Death? I think it's a pretty nice value card, even if you only ping a couple of dudes with it.
Spyglass looks like a nice one, looking forward to slotting that into cube. Chart the Course will find a home as well, draw/discard effects are at a super premium in my cube as my players love getting graveyard value.
As much as I know Carnage Tyrant is an amazing 6 drop, I just can't bring myself to run such a boring fatty. At the end of the day cube is about splashy fun for me, so I'm going to be giving this guy a miss.
Have you had a chance to test out Search for Azcanta yet? I love me some value lands, but I feel like it might be a little slow given how tight blue is these days.
This is a pretty shallow set for cube sadly, but I was surprised to see a couple of cards omitted from at least the top 20 - I think The Locust God* is actually a really good option for Izzet, especially given the recent flashback rule change pretty much pushing Fire//Ice out of contention for those that still run it.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded is also a pretty interesting one, I think it's a good option for cubes with good reanimate support. Being able to tutor any bullet you need out of your deck is pretty amazing - the lack of lifelink makes him more of a liability than Griselbrand, but I think they're quite close in power. Cheating this guy out means you've got exactly the answer you need at any given time* (assuming there's an answer in your deck), which makes it pretty hard to lose the game.
Other than that, Magus of the Crucible is a pretty nice card for saturation as you said, and it's always nice to get some more utility shatter cards. Definitely looking forward to playing with the new Nicol Bolas, I love big splashy cards in my cube!
* Edit - Wow, I just reread Razaketh and realised it had the additional cost of sacrificing a creature. WAY less powerful than I thought!
* Edit 2 - Locust god, not scarab god
Surprised not to see Glorybringer on the list - a reusable kavu strapped to a dragon is pretty gross, no love? I think I'd also like to try Cast Out, but the 4CC slot is so super stacked in white it's really hard to find room. A lot of tough choices in this set, it's pretty great for cube overall!
I also think Regal Caracal is a pretty good choice, I'd say any lists currently running Cloudgoat Ranger should consider swapping it out for this guy. You get a similar effect, but trade in the ability to jump for a lord effect on a surprisingly decent amount of cats that a lot of cubes run at 2-3 CMC. Running this guy out after a Brimaz would be pretty nice!
It's mostly from the Rumour Mill. A lot of people will only come to MTGS for spoiler season, and the average quality of players/posts for spoiled cards is poor at best. A lot of people with no idea how to evaluate cards weighing in with their unwanted opinions, and generally posting about how [Bad Card] makes [Bad Deck] viable now!