Commander 2013 Multiplayer Set Review (51/51)

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    • Currently 2.35323207004717 / 5
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Rating Scale:
5: Would strongly consider playing this card in any deck that could reasonably support it. Powerful enough to build around if needed since it figures to dominate a table. These are format definers that can warp metas entirely if your playgroup is still getting their feet wet in the Magic world. Think Exsanguinate, Land Tax, Consecrated Spinx, Doubling Season, Insurrection.

4: Powerful card that I will usually play but that doesn't offer anything truly unique. It's certainly good but it's interchangeable with enough cards that you'll never be scrambling to play it in everything. It's probably good enough to build around and at the very least you'll be keeping it in mind as you're fleshing the rest of the list out. That being said it's much more likely that you'll play these cards as key supporting pillars to give your deck some inherent strength. Think Syphon Mind, Earthquake, Wrath of God, Rite of Replication, Defense of the Heart.

3: This is a generically good card that won't make a deck much better or worse. It's not going to blow you away but it's not going to disappoint you very often either. A deck full of these won't crush a table but it will usually be good enough (tm) to keep you competitive. Think Vampire Nighthawk, Clone, Chandra's Spitfire, Calming Verse, Austere Command.

2: This card has some niche application but I wouldn't put much effort in acquiring it since it's unlikely to be a key player in many of your current/future decks. It's not great but it's somewhat multiplayer orientated so you should probably keep it on your radar.

1: This card wouldn't be played in an ideal world.

+/-: Used to distinguish between a "better" N and a "worse" N. That is, a 3+ dictates a high-quality 3 whereas a 3- would be on the lower end of the spectrum.

Cubeworthy: simple "yes" or "no" of whether or not I'd Cube with the card myself. That is, would I both put this card in one of Cubes and actively draft it a reasonably high % of the time with plans to maindeck it.

White
Act of Authority
This card seems fine but unimpressive. It answers something permanently for 3 mana and if you're satisfied with that then you can call it quits right then and there. Otherwise you can keep the chain going which will undoubtedly result in everyone slowly losing everything important. Either option seems fine to me personally. You can obviously also blink this thing to keep sniping key threats but there aren't that many ways to blink enchantments so I wouldn't rely on that. The clear downside of the card is that it can't hit creatures which means that it'll never outright replace a card like Oblivion Ring.

The only thing that I don't like about this card is that it seems like it could very easily create a boring game-state where no one can play artifacts and enchantment except for one person. Until the person with the Act pulls the trigger and starts playing things him/herself it really doesn't make any sense for anyone to commit anything valuable to the board. I'm not a fan of cards that prolong games needlessly and this seems like it could be one of those at times.

Rating: 2
Cuebworthy

Angel of Finality
A 3/4 flying for 4 with a solid ETB ability. What more needs to be said really? While the effect isn't going to be great against everyone at the table I'd be completely shocked if it wasn't soul crushing for a few of them. Being able to stifle recursion shenanigans is a big game and one that shouldn't be overlooked given that it's attached to such a reasonable body. This will obviously find an immediate home in the Blink decks as a 1-of if needed and could easily be played "as is" as an out to recursive shells. Realistically you shouldn't need an excuse to play with this type of effect since it'll virtually always be good.

Rating: 3
Cubeworthy

Curse of the Forsaken
Fringe playable as a 1-of in White lifegain decks with Soul's Attendant, Soul Warden, Serra Ascendant, Ajani's Pridemate, Archangel of Thune, Well of Lost Dreams, etc. It's not a good card by any stretch of the imagination though. It's easily one of the worst curses in a vacuum and can only be conceivably be played in small numbers in fringe archetypes. The only thing going for it is the large quantity of triggers (over say Path of Bravery) which is relevant for the Pridemate and and Archangel. If It just so happens to incite attacks from others, so be it, I just highly doubt that a bit of life will make-or-break the decision with any frequency.

Rating: 2-
Not Cubeworthy

Darksteel mutation
This thing is an answer to someone's annoying general and makes it so they can't just nuke it themselves to easily get it back in the command zone. Seems pretty bad to me. If your EDH deck doesn't have a bunch of sacrifice outlets then you're just plain doing it wrong in my opinion. I mean I suppose this is a something in Pariah decks and whatnot and could be fringe playable in those BW Pestilence decks. Ultimately this just seems like an extremely niche card that shouldn't ever be played outside of extreme exceptions. That being said I'm pretty sure that most Pariah and Worship decks would run this type of card so I'm not going to call it completely unplayable.

Rating: 2-
Not Cubeworthy

Mystic Barrier
At 5 mana this doesn't exactly offer anything in the way of early defense but it's probably still fringe playable in the pillow-fort deck filled with Ghostly Prisons and Sphere of Safetys. Not as a 4-of or anything but I could see a world where having 1 or 2 could do some work. I know that I'm ignoring the political implications of this card by stating claims like that but realistically speaking I don't care about those kinds of things when I play. If something beneficial springs from it, cool. I'll take it. That being said I focus on what my cards will do for me. While most deck won't want this type of effect the ones that do are probably glad that they finally have access to it.

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

Serene Master
Busted defensive 2 drop. Let me explain to you the difference between this and Fog Bank. Fog Bank is a bad card because it doesn't threaten anything. If I have 2 dudes to your 1 Fog Bank then swinging at you is still free. Swinging at this guy is basically never free. At worst he blanks one attacker but I mean if you try and get in there with 2-3 dudes it's incredibly likely that one of them will get eaten in the process. With that in mind the attack just plain won't happen period. This guy will often feel like a self-only Moat in that sense. If you want a defensive 2 drop then this is a great place to start.

Rating: 3+
Cubeworthy

Tempt with Glory
I literally burst out laughing when I read this thing. If I have to explain why it's bad then may God have mercy on us all.

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy

Unexpectedly Absent
This isn't a multiplayer card. It's designed to be played solely in EDH and/or Legacy since you can respond to any shuffle effect (say a Fetchland or a cheap tutor) to "tuck" something away (say a Commander or a Jace). It doesn't seem great in Legacy by any means and I don't know enough about EDH to make any definitive claims about it there but it seems playable as another Oblation. I've never seen a "bad" tuck effect in the format and people seem happy enough to run Oblation and so I have to believe that this one is fine too. It's more conditional, sure, but it's value should roughly correlate with the overall power-level and competitiveness of the decks in your area.

Rating: N/A
Not Cubeworthy

Blue
Curse of Inertia
If this card said "tap or untap a permanent for each attacking creature" then it would actually read "target player loses the game" and you better believe that I would play the Hell out of that. That's obviously overpowered as sin but one can dream. What I like about this Curse is that it makes attacking with one big, evasive creature free. Just swing + untap it to stay defensive. All things being equal that's actually quite powerful since you're potentially looking at the entire table doing it. It's basically free value after all. The biggest problem with that plan is that it assumes that players will always make free attacks. Because of the dreaded word "politics" that isn't always the case. I'm not going to play this just to give one of my guys Vigilance and sit there with my fingers crossed hoping that other players will follow suit. It may very well be effective in practice but it just seems like such a sketchy gameplan to me personally. I just really hate relying on other people to make the "right" decision because they often don't :P.

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy

Diviner Spirit
As someone who champions cards like Hunted Horror and Trade Secrets I can't completely bash this card. Giving the weakest player at the table a few cards is trivial at best but drawing cards yourself is always amazing. Drawing an extra 2 per turn is just absurd. The fact that it flies means that it will almost always be able to hit someone (even if it's not an ideal target) and I'll take drawing cards even if it means that someone else gets to as well. It's also worth nothing that this card pairs extremely well with equipment. Toss a Sword/Grafted Wargear on this thing and star going to town. It's good in those Cephalid Constable decks in that sense. Ultimately the best applications of this card involve some sort of pump be it via equipment or by lords such as Grand Architect. 2 is good but 5 is insane.

That being said I still can't overlook this card's mana cost and lack of stats. Sturmgeist, to me, is just a better card on average. It's certainly worse when built-around but in terms of a card that you can just blindly jam into your decks then I think that it's significantly stronger ob average. It can actually kill people and even though it only draws half as many cards I'm never putting myself in a situation where I'm helping a stronger player out. With Trade Secrets and Hunted Horror it's different because I can always target the worst player at the table with the effect. I cannot swing this into a flying blocker. It's entirely possible that people will just take the hit to draw cards, that's reasonable, especially if you make explicit deals. "Hey, who wants to draw some cards?" The more that I think about it the more that I actually like it but it still feels a little under-tuned. Bluntly put I'm probably just going to play Sturmgeist instead the vast majority of the time if only because I like it when my 5+ CMC creatures can actually kill people. I'm probably underrating this card because the extra card(s) is likely worth more than the extra damage but you do need to win the game at some point and 5/5 fliers (or whatever) are actually solid ways to go about it. I'm more than willing to accept that I could be completely wrong about how good this card actually is though. Pairing it with equipment is a really big game after all and that could easily push it over-the-top.

Rating: 3
Cubeworthy

Djinn of Infinite Deceits
This card has a lot of things working against it. First of all it's a 6 mana creature that doesn't offer any immediate value. Moreover it will literally scare every player at the table with a decent threat in play. The idea of trading up all of your 1-4 drops for their 5-7 drops is a frightening proposition after all. You're basically begging to have this thing killed in that sense. In addition it's a fairly weak post-Wrath play (for obvious reasons) and it's ill-equipped to win games on its own. It can certainly take a game over if it's left unchecked but you're not exactly going to sneak this past the other players or anything. If anyone can interact with it then they probably will. Where this card will shine is in metas that are light on removal, namely mass removal, that favor creature-based decks. I mean the effect is blatantly powerful and I'm not trying to suggest that this card is marginal once it gets going. If no one has an answer for it (which is going to be the case some % of the time) then it's probably going to put its controlled in an incredibly powerful position over the course of a few short turns. That, to me, isn't good enough however. These kinds of cards and effects will certainly appeal to some but I just can't quite bring myself my justify their inclusion in my lists. Cut the mana cost and the stats and maybe then you're cooking with gas. At 6 mana I just can't get excited to play this thing.

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

Illusionist's Gambit
I'm not a fan of Fogs (especially 4 mana versions) but this one's power-level is potentially high enough to make some waves. My biggest concern with this card is that I don't see how you can play it outside of EDH. First of all, holding up 4 mana is a lot in multiplayer. This isn't a duel where you can just counter/kill everything as needed at instant speed. You need to have some sort of defensive board presence or else you should get attacked by basically every player at the table until you commit resources. Not alpha struck mind you but they should have a spare guy to send your way to force you into acting. What this means is that you realistically can't just sit there and threaten to screw people over in combat. It might work against very weak players but I mean good ones will still get their attacks in and force your hand. That's where the true flaw of this card surfaces. It's not actually that big of a blowout early on. Ok, you stopped an attack by 1-2 creatures tops and someone else got hit instead. That's not even especially favorable for you. It obviously has value against lategame alpha strikes and Insurrections but I mean that's kind of a narrow application for a combat trick if you ask me. The problem that most people will probably have is that they'll remember the 1 or 2 times that this card truly shined and overlook all of the instances where it was rotting in their hand as an uncastable and/or weak trick. People often remember and/or perceive these kinds of cards as being a better than they actually are in that sense. The effect is certainly powerful and unique and the card is worth testing it out but as it stands I don't think that we're looking at a staple or anything.

Rating: 2
Cubeworthy: I don't like the card but I know that this effect appeals to a large % of players.

Order of Succession
This card isn't quite Control Magic however 4 mana permanent theft is never a bad place to be. The proximity restrictions are annoying to say the least to the point where I just plain wouldn't field this thing in 6+ player games for that reason alone. The drawback seems manageable in smaller games though. Blue isn't exactly known for having the best creatures and that ones that you will play are often marginal bodies with good ETB abilities such as Augur of Bolas and Mulldrifter. You can also field finishers which are impossible to interact with such as Aetherling. What this is means is that you can quite readily construct your deck with this card in mind and ensure that you never lose anything valuable in the process. The dream is obviously to run this out on turns 4 or later with an empty board but I mean that's a bit ambitious unless your meta is especially slow. It's certainly possible mind you but I wouldn't expect it to happen very often. Ultimately this comes across as being more of a zany "watch the world burn" card and less of a "I want to win at all costs" one. There are better things that you could be doing with 4 mana after all. It certainly seems playable in decks with specific subsets of creatures but I mean you probably can't just blindly jam this into your brews.

Rating: 2
Cubeworthy

Tempt with Reflections
As much as the phrase "you control" makes my soul bleed this thing is still a 4 mana copy effect which can potentially spiral out of control. It'll always be fringe playable for that reason alone. It's not going to be the next Rite of Replication by any means but it may very well do a passable impression at times. I can't say that I'm in love with the card and I wouldn't even claim to like it however. No one is going to give you additional copies of anything important unless they have the Wrath ready to go and are simply looking to push some damage through before clearing the board. There's probably always going to be that "one guy" who tried to ruin things for everyone by "taking the offer" but that's certainly manageable for most lists. I dunno, I just don't see how this card is ever going to be actively good.

Rating: 2
Cubeworthy

Tidal Force
The best use that I can think of for this card is to permanently keep someone's blockers tapped down to hopefully sure their imminent demise. It also enables for some pseudo-vigilance which is always somewhat relevant. I still can't help but think that it's the worst of the "Forces" and I really can't envision myself ever playing it in something. The payoff isn't there for something that costs 8 mana in my opinion. I think that deep down we all knew that this is what the Blue one was going to do as soon as we saw that the Black one wasn't "target creature gets -2/-2" or whatever but that still doesn't make it an easier pill to swallow. It feels boring and weak to me.

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

True-Name Nemesis
I actively dislike protection cards in multiplayer because I hate what they do to games. A 3 power creature for 3 that can blank a player isn't terrible but it makes me sick to think that someone will a toss a Sword/Grafted Wargear on this thing and prevent someone from playing Magic. That's not fun or interactive in my mind. That's just Invisible Stalker 2.0. I just don't like what this kind of cards does to games and so I don't recommend playing it. It has nothing to do with the card being too weak or too strong and everything to do with its "fun factor" of 0. Like this thing is just extremely marginal against the vast majority of your opponents but it's the absolute nuts against one of them. I hate that kind of design.

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy

Black
Baleful Force: Let me tell you why I like this card. I think that most of us can agree that you're probably only going to play this guy in a Reanimator style deck. Your top-end threat can't be an evasionless, protectionless 7/7 who draws cards after all. You need a game-ender for that kind of mana. What I like about this card is that it's not Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur nor Griselbrand. My problem with Jin is that he's a horrendous Magic card. If you revive him on turn 2 or 3 unanswered then your opponents don't even get to play Magic. That's horrible in my opinion. No meta should be that quick/stale in my mind. Griselbrand isn't as oppressive but he's like what, $20.00? Good luck affording those in your casual decks. This card, at some point, is going to drop down to Celestial Force prices. At that point it's a decent, budget, cool Reanimator target. It's fine if people kill it eventually and it's fine if other people still get to play Magic. That's an actively good thing in my opinion. You still put yourself in a solid position but it's not so solid that you can't possibly lose. I don't expect to play much of him as an "as is" creature in a regular "Big Black" deck but he seems like a great card to run out on turn 4ish.

As far as cards to pair him with are concerned the obvious inclusions are things like Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Soul Spike. Crypt Ghast would be solid as well for a plethora of reasons. It allows you to hardcast him, he gains you life, he allows you to dump your hand at a reasonable clip, etc. Obvious synergy is obvious. I also like pairing him with Demigod of Revenge who is a card that I'd want to run anyways in a Buried Alive deck. You can discard excess Demigods to hand size at no real cost after all. Massacre, Contagion, Spinning Darkness, any "free" spell seems good in this type of shell. Again we're basically talking about a very bad Griselbrand here. Maybe not "very bad" but significantly weaker at the very least. Just get him into play and chain drain spells until you win really.

Rating: 2+
Cubeworthy: Assuming a moderate Reanimation + drain theme this is easily worth running.

Curse of Shallow Graves
The only compelling reason to play this card, in my mind, stems from the existence of recursive beaters such as Gravecrawler. It's probably the most playable Curse for that reason alone. It's not as powerful as say Lord of the Undead or Death Baron but I mean it'll be cheap and it'll survive Wraths so I won't call this one unplayable. I don't think that it's good outside of decks with recursive beaters though. A tapped 2/2 just plain isn't good enough if you're not consistently getting one every turn. It is by far and away the best Curse though because a free body is a free body and you'd (i.e. other players) be foolish not to take advantage of the opportunity if it presented itself. So yeah, not amazing but not terrible either. Just a decent, resilient token producer for lists with recursive threats.

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

Fell Shepherd
This is kind of card that needed to be a 4 mana 3/2 or something. As it stands it just seems completely unplayable to me. First of all you are just plain never going all-in on this thing and hoping to dodge removal. That would be moronic. If you're going to pair this card with creatures it's going to be things such as Gravecrawler and Bloodghast who wouldn't need to be recurred by the Keeper to begin with. Moreover you still have to pay mana to activate his effect despite the fact that he's a 7 drop. He's not even a good sac outlet in that sense. I mean if you can ever untap with him then it won't be especially difficult to hold mana up for it but that offers little consolation in my mind. I suppose that you could play this guy in a Grave Pact shell but how is he ever going to be anything beyond a win-more effect in those? Or any deck for that matter? Everything about this card is just a big miss in my opinion and I can't really ever see myself playing it. I can be doing much more powerful things for 7 mana and there's no world where this becomes a priority Reanimation target. I would have loved to have seen a 4-5 mana variation of this card or something because at 7 he seems wildly underpowered.

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy

Hooded Horror
A 5 mana 4/4 with pseudo-evasion is complete garbage in my opinion. I'm in disbelief that they printed this POS.

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy

Ophiomancer
As long as your deck has sac outlets of some sort I can't imagine ever being upset to field this thing. It's a defensive 3 drop that can provide a steady stream of offerings after all. The card that immediately springs to mind is Attrition and even things like Carnage Altar seem fine too. Obviously it's just a 2/2 for 3 so it's vulnerable to removal but I mean it's still 2 bodies (one of which has deathtouch) for 3 mana a huge % of the time. If he dies immediately, that sucks, but he's just a dumb little 3 drop lol. The card also has just enough standalone value that you'll never be embarassed to run him out "as is" even if you can't sac the snake every turn if needed. He's not amazing or anything but for 3 mana you could do much worse.

Rating: 3-
Cubeworthy

Price of Knowledge
The only thing that this card has going for it is the fact that it triggers on Upkeep which means that it can conceivably kill players off before they can pressure you for tapping out on turn 7 to "do nothing." I've started to develop an appreciation for Wound Reflection which is now a card that I consider to be an absolute staple in most Black EDH decks. This serves a similar purpose even though it's probably more of a Blue card than anything else. Forced Fruition and whatnot. Ultimately it seems too expensive and too conditional to be anything other than a niche player and I really can't envision myself playing it in Cube nor Constructed. Maybe I'm undervaluing its ability to kill multiple players off over the course of a few upkeeps but I just can't shake the feeling that it'll consistently fail to deliver the goods. The only time that I'd feel comfortable casting it is when it'd be entirely win-more (probably anyways). That being said I'm sure that it'll play well in the Blue Ebony Owl Netsuke deck because there's just no way that you could omit a win condition this powerful in that archetype. I think that it plays much better in EDH than it does in Constructed though because I'm not convinced that you'd want a 7 CMC win condition in the 60 card variations of the deck. Powerful or not that's a tall order for a combo deck to fill.

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

Tempt With Immortality
Something that you quickly realize when brewing with this card is that it's basically impossible to actually break it. You can't just have a Buried Alive into Living Death style list and it's pretty pointless to pair it with Withered Wretch effects as well. At the end of the day you're always jumping through hoops to play a fairly marginal 5 mana revival spell. I think that the best applications for this card involve normal Control decks with lots of creatures and plenty of Wraths. Nothing special, nothing combo-esque, just field it as a decent revival spell.n blowe you away with power because most people should refuse the offer but if 1-2 accept it then you'll probably be a in strong position. Maybe that's wishful thinking but there's always one guy who tries to ruin it for everyone. I don't foresee it being a staple because it's just never going to rival cards like Living Death and Sepulchral Primordial however.

Rating: 2
Cubeworthy

Toxic Deluge
10/10 would print again. 3 mana mass removal in Black is stellar and I've been waiting for a card like this for a long time. Damnation is ungodly expensive and Life's Finale is too slow. While it's possible that this card could see some Legacy play I'm hoping that it'll remain relative inexpensive so that more people will have access to decent Black Wraths. Mutilate just doesn't always cut it after all. It really only takes a single lifegain spell to offset the cost and anyone who's ever cast an Exsanguinate or a Gray merchant of Asphodel can probably attest to that fact. This thing kills anything dead even if it'll sometimes mean paying 15 life to axe an Emrakul or something. That sucks, don't get me wrong, but it's significantly better than outright losing the game. I am just enamored with this card and I'm very excited that Wizards decided to go ahead and print it. It's exactly what the doctor ordered.

Rating: 4
Cubeworthy

Red
Curse of Chaos: I wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole. People are going to use words like "politics" to justify it and will undoubtedly compare it Edric, Spymaster of Trest. To those people I say "have a nice life." This card costs too much and offers an incredibly marginal effect that will rarely-if-ever rally a table against someone. Random discard usually sucks and everyone knows it. If there's card advantage involved (Desperate Ravings), sure, maybe. But a 1-for-1? And I might lose my best card? God no. I could see myself NOT attacking that person for that reason alone. It's not a good card. Don't run it.

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy

From the Ashes
This is clearly designed to be a "fair" EDH spell and nothing more. Mass land d is typically frowned upon in casual formats but at the same time you kind of need an answers to lands such as Cabal Coffers, Kessig Wolf Run, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, etc. at times. Spot removal isn't always going to cut it either. This card answer all of them at once but doesn't outright prevent people from playing Magic like oh say Ruination would. Even though that strictly worse from an "I only care about winning" point of view it's better from an "I want people to enjoy playing with me" perspective. It's annoying but it's also necessary and relatively fair. So no, this card clearly isn't as powerful as a Blood Moon or a Ruination but it isn't supposed to be. This is what you run if you want to keep things very casual.

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

Sudden Demise
Ok this card is just sweet. Perish in Red for any color? This feels like Bonfire of the Damned 2.0 in many ways because this thing is just going to God crush people. Red already has cards like Mass Mutiny which often do the same thing but you can never have too many of those effects now can you? I realize that this card doesn't deal damage to players which is easily the biggest strike against it but it still seems like it'll be a massive blowout the vast majority of the time that it's cast. "Plague Wind you" is just such a devastating effect after all.

Rating: 4
Cubeworthy

Tempt with Vengeance
This card seems tailor made for Purphoros, God of the Forge decks even though no one will ever accept the offer. No one who wants to win anyways. This "Offer" spell is clearly stronger than most because even if no one accept is you're still getting X bodies for X-1 mana and we've all played the game enough to know that there's any number of ways to abuse throngs of small creatures. Your one Beastmaster Ascension away from killing everyone after all. Red White Token decks will surely love this card for example. Again, I don't really expect anyone to ever increase your token count but I mean it only takes one jerk to ruin it for everyone and that type of thing could potentially end games on the spot.

Rating: 2
Cubeworthy

Terra Ravager
This card is bad on defense and marginal on offense. I couldn't imagine ever playing him in anything.

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy

Widespread Panic
I've never seen these "shuffle hate" spells earn their keep. Maybe this was designed for Legacy use but it just doesn't strike as being good enough to field in general in a multiplayer setting. Someone somewhere will probably play it to some success but I'm not going to hold my breath on having that happen for me.

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy

Witch Hunt
Wizards keeps trying to print fixed versions of Sulfuric Vortex and they keep failing miserably. This costs too much mana and kills too slowly to ever be an actual playable in my mind. What this card needed was a clause that prevented it from ever returning to its original controller or something. It's just woefully unexciting as is.

Rating: 2-
Not Cubeworthy

Green
Bane of Progress: My only gripe about this card is that I don't believe that the best Green decks will even run it. Simply put enchantments such as Lurking Predators will snag you more free wins than destroying opposing perms ever will. This is still a big upgrade to Fracturing Gust for many reasons though, especially once you start considering tutors such as Green Sun's Zenith and Birthing Pod and revival engines such as Genesis. Obviously Pod doesn't have the best synergy with it but if the alternative is to lose then sacrifices must be made. The point is that being a creature is a tremendous advantage since it enables recursion to be truly back-breaking for decks vulnerable to the effect. The only reason why I wouldn't slam this in everything is because I just plain don't want to lose my Survival of the Fittests, Doubling Seasons, Lurking Predators, etc. in order to support it. Even if Acidic Slime or Calming Verse are weaker, hey, they do the job that I want them to. It's probably worth noting that since Sylvan Primordial is a card this one's value further decreases. You can nuke anything back-breaking without losing access to your own goodies. It's a solid card that I'm glad to see but I wouldn't go crazy tossing these into everything. Obviously if you do't have any Artis/Enchs, by all means, run as many as you want. I mean maybe Garruk, Caller of Beasts is your "big finisher" after all. That's perfectly reasonable.

Rating: 3+
Cubeworthy

Curse of Predation
I wouldn't even run this in Primal Vigor decks.

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy

Naya Soulbeast
The fact that Lurking Predators and friends can't cheat it out really hurts this card's stock. It's probably still a fringe playable in the Doubling Season decks with Primal Vigor and Kalonian Hydra but that's only because it has Trample and realistically it should be fairly large on average. I don't like the fact that it's an 8 drop without protection and who doesn't offer any immediate value though. That's just such a crippling drawback. I would never play this card in a generic Green deck and for example and I wouldn't be excited to play it in the +1/+1 counter decks. It's probably just barely good enough to play in those but the margin is razor thin. I wouldn't fault anyone for avoiding this thing.

Rating: 2-
Not Cubeworthy

Primal Vigor
Believe it or not I'm not going to hate on this card. Symmetrical effects are always questionable to field in a multiplayer setting and you certainly run the risk of helping your opposition out when you play a card such as this. Realistically speaking I would actually be shocked if you resolved one of these and were the only person to benefit from it in an average game. That being said a bad Doubling Season is still a Doubling Season and it doesn't take a genius to see just how powerful the effect can be in the right deck. Scavening Ooze, Predator Ooze, Forgotten Ancient, Spike Weaver any Triskelion variant, any token generator and much more all become absolutely nutty. It doesn't affect Planeswalkers and it has a drawback, sure, but it's still really freaking overpowered in the right shell. Anyone who's ever played with Doubling Season can probably attest to the raw power that it offers. Furthermore it's not really a symmetrical effect in practice because your deck will be much more suited to abuse it (on average). It can completely take over as game and allow for some relatively unbeatable nut draws. I've seen my fair share of Doubling Season decks in action to know this and so I fully expect this to become incredibly popular in the casual scene. Not on Doubling Season's level obviously but I mean budget alternatives to broken cards are typically well-received. Here's hoping that it doesn't become another million dollar monstrosity.

Rating: 4
Cubeworthy

Restore
In order for this card to be truly nuts you basically have to be playing with a critical mass of Fetchlands in your deck or be reasonably certain that others will. The ability to recur any land is cool and all but I mean that's an extremely narrow effect given the existence of Regrowth-esque cards. If you're playing this card it's so that you can ramp a large % of the time and recur something special a small % of the time. Everything about this card is meta dependent in that sense. If you can recur Fetches then it's great. If there's also relevant spell lands to recur then that's even better. Otherwise it's probably complete trash because this isn't a generically good spell by any means.

Rating: 2-
Not Cubeworthy

Spawning Grounds
I actually like this card a lot in Primeval Titan decks. It reminds me a lot of Dragon Roost except that it's significantly more powerful once it gets going. 8 mana is a lot, don't get me wrong, it's just not that much in a world of Sylvan Primordials and whatnot. I mean realistically it's closer to a 9 drop because you probably don't really want to tap out for it without creating the 5/5 blocker immediately but you get the idea. I would 100% play this in "Big Green" decks with plenty of high-end rampers. Maybe not as a 4-of but 1 or 2 copies could go a long way.

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

Tempt with Discovery
This card annoys me because for two reasons. First of all it fetches "any" land and not just "basics" lands. Moreover people can be really stupid at times. I don't think that this card is especially good if we assume that our opponents are competent but I mean it only takes one moron to search and suddenly the controller now has Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or whatever. Like Reap and Sow has always been a playable card in my experience so this thing is clearly worthwhile even if everyone refuses the "Offer" but I mean if 1 or 2 people accept it then the game will probably just end on the spot. That's Tron, 3x Cloudpost, Urborg + Coffers, etc. This is a very difficult card to evaluate in that sense. If we assume that people are idiots then this will snag you a ton of free wins. If we assume that most people are competent then this card is still potentially absurd. If we assume that your opponents are all competent all the time then it's still marginally playable. Because the worst case scenario is "this card is fine" and the best case scenario is "you win the game" I kind of have to conclude that this will be a fairly strong card.

Rating: 3+
Cubeworthy

Multicolor
Note that I purposely excluded the 5 "big" generals because they have little-if-any generic multiplayer value.

Gahiji, Honored One
I'm actually somewhat intrigued by this card. The body sucks almost as much as the mana cost but the effect is compelling to say the least. +2 power is no joke and it will tip the scales in the decision more often than not I imagine. It's ALMOST like a No Mercy + Bullwhip in that sense. Not only are you encouraging more attacks to happen but they'll often be directed at people other than you. This card still suffers from being a 5 mana do-nothing who is basically only good if you're already in a solid position but by no means does that make it unplayable. It's not simpy another "win-more" effect in my mind. When cast in a neutral or slightly (un)favorable board state it can really shake things up because all attacks against anyone but you start to look significantly better. I wouldn't fault you for running one of these in your Naya Beast decks with Godsire, Tragtusk and Taurean Mauler or whatever.

Rating: 2+
Not Cubeworthy (3 colors, too conditional)

Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
I don't play much Commander but I would gladly play against this than any mainstream general so that probably means that it sucks horribly. The card offers very little in "generic" multiplayer games for obvious reasons. Not going to rate it because this basically only exists to be a general.

Rating: N/A
Not Cubeworthy

Nekusar, the Mindrazer
This card is so bad that it hurts. It's ridiculously expensive, marginal and has a terrible body for something that is obviously supposed to be a combo card. It's just complete crap in that sense. Like I get that Wizards wants to support the "Windfall" deck with Liliana's Caress and Underworld Dreams but this isn't even remotely close to being playable in those kinds of shells. I won't pretend to be an EDH expert but if this card is a viable commander then may God have mercy on us all. I mean, what's the plan exactly? Cast it, let everyone Phyrexian Arena, have it die (it's turn freaking 5) and repeat? That's your gameplan? Jesus...

Rating: 1
Not Cubeworthy.

Roon of the Hidden Realm
There's not much to say here really. The body is fine since a vigilant 4/4 for 5 with additional upsides is borderline playable already. Beyond that it's another powerful card for the Deadeye Navigator deck. The only difference this time is that you can use it as your general to guarantee access to a recurring form of blink effects. It's obviously playable outside of EDH as well but it's probably a bit too slow and mana intensive to make many waves in the casual scene. Most people will probably just play Venser, Sojourner or something. Anyways, you'll pair it with Wood Elves, Solemn Simulacrum, Wayfarer Elf, Restoration Angel, Mystic Snake, Acidic Slime, Mulldrifter, Thragtusk, Prophet of Kruphix, Draining Whelk, Primespeaker Zegana, Titans, Primordials, etc. and it'll be solid. It's obviously not the same as a true Blink effect but having your Primordial dodge a Wrath or something is a big game. You can also just use him to protect Deadeye Navigator because hey, let's be honest with ourselves, he's the real star of the show. He's going to see a lot of EDH play and I mean he's certainly reasonable to field in your Bant Blink decks as a 1-of at the very least. This is exactly what casual players have been looking for in a Bant general (no more Rafiq please :() because it's both fun and powerful without being utterly oppressive (at least I hope not lol).

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

Shattergang Brothers
Alright let's get the obvious answers out of the way. The best Enchantment to sac is probably Rancor for very obvious reasons. The best creatures to sac are things like Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton and it doesn't take a genius to see why. For artifacts I'd be looking at things like Fellwar Stone and Myconsynth Wellspring which I would likely pair with Trading Post or something. You could even jam Goblin Welder in the deck and get dirty with various Myr Battlesphere effects. All of that is well and good but the problem with this card is how freaking slow it is. 4 mana for a 3/3 is certainly playable but if you're looking to get immediate value out of this guy then we're talking about something that costs you at least 7 mana. Wizards clearly didn't want this guy to prevent people from playing Magic because there's virtually no way to truly abuse him unless you can stick a Training Grounds or something (which you obviously can't do in EDH if he's your general). He could, in theory, clear the board over time but in practice I'd fully expect him to die before it ever came to that. Alternatively people may very well let him do his thing but only insofar as it benefits them. Having one player spend all of his or her time and resources to clearing the board every turn certainly favors some players more than others. I would happily sit there, make land draws and play card draw spells while creatures like him durdle around keeping the field clear for me. Anyone who wants to handle this guy probably can and anyone who doesn't likely won't have to. He just comes across as being another marginal playable who won't make any waves in casual and who probably won't be able to compete with any of the mainstream generals in EDH. Nothing special but probably not complete trash in either format.

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

Sydri, Galvanic Genis
Now this is a card. It has a reasonable CMC, fantastic creature types and most important it has 2 amazing and inexpensive activated abilities. Esper lends itself amazing well to artifact decks and you can bet your boots this this little vixen will fit snugly into many preexisting shells. Deathtouch and lifelink is just such a potent combination (as seen on Wurmcoul Engine) which will enable you to grind people out over time. The March of the Machines effect certainly isn't trivial either, especially when it comes at such a reasonable price. Being able to block with that Unwinding Clock or whatever seems like a good deal to me. This is just a fantastic card for so many reasons and I can't wait to see her in action. She's everything that I'm looking for in a multiplayer card. A cheap body that I'm just as happy to slam on turn 8 as I am on turn 3 that enables you to grind people out should the game run long. 2 big thumbs up on this one.

Rating: 4
Not Cubeworthy unless your Cube is designed specifically to support an Esper artifact theme.

Artifact
Eye of Doom
I personally hate this card and I'd be shocked if it became a staple in either EDH or regular casual constructed. It's so much weaker than Nevinyrral's Disk, Oblivion Stone and All is Dust that it's not even funny. The reason to play these cards is that sometimes you just plain need to blow up "the everything" and when that happens you can't have something that's going to get crushed by some idiot who's trying to play "politics." And by politics I obviously mean some sap who's going to target something useless instead of Dave's Survival of the Fittest because he doesn't want to make any enemies. Great. "Oh ****" buttons are fantastic and I highly recommend them but this isn't even close to being a playable version of one. I'm basically looking at a 6 mana Vindicate with potential drawbacks. Super. If there's someone out there excited to see this maybe you can explain to me what you see in it. I'm drawing a blank myself. I mean maybe a 6 mana Vindicate is actually good enough but I mean that seems pretty loose to me personally. I could see myself running it in Red decks as a last resort or something but even then Karn just seems superior.

For the record I don't really care about its interaction with Oblivion Stone, Triad of Fates, That Which Was Taken, etc. Maybe they want it to be some sort of janky combo card but that's just not something that I'm even remotely interested in. I do not see a card with much standalone value and I'm certainly not interested in a slow, mana intensive combo that Plague Wind + Calming Verses the table or whatever. I understand that different metas have varying levels of competitiveness but I mean you're pushing your luck with that.

Rating: 2
Not Cubeworthy

Surveyor's Scope
I like this card a lot but I'll probably never play with it. I wouldn't feel comfortable going all-in on some Mox Diamond, Bounceland, Borderpost plan and I virtually never try to cheat on my mana base in multiplayer. I'm the first guy to play 25+ lands in my lists and I know that relatively few people follow suit. If anything people will piggy-back off of me to enable this type of effect. What I love about this card is that it takes you from a position where you can't possibly win to being straight back into the thick of things. What I hate about this card is that it's completely useless in an "average" game. If you live in a world where everyone is slamming Skyshroud Claims, ok, sure, you've found yourself a winner. Play the heck out of this thing. I'm guessing that most of us live in a world that's not the case however. At the end of the day the best decks will never play this kind of card because it's completely reliant on A) having a draw or B) your opponent's doing something to enable it. I'm not fond of relying on either.

Of all the cards spoiled this is probably the one that I'm the least sure of. I can't tell if this is just a good Rampant Growth which can potentially pull you back from unwinnable positions or if it's a 2 mana Gilded Lotus. I'm also not sure if it's simply correct to just blindly mull to this card and then sit on 1-2 lands (assuming Bouncelands, Mox Diamond, Borderposts) until everyone else hits 3-4. That could in fact be quite reasonable in 4+ player games. That does sound kind of sweet actually. You could even bluff that you're mana screwed and hope to fly under the radar for a few turns while sitting behind some defensive bodies. Hmmm. That's not terrible now is it? Gah, help me out here guys, what do you think about it? It does seem like it could be quite powerful doesn't it? It probably is just completely overpowered if you build around it.

Rating: 4
Cubeworthy

Land
Opal Palace
Good in EDH. No, really, that's all I got. There's basically no reason not to play this thing unless you're fielding some 5 color monstrosity that never plans to cast its general and/or have it participate in combat. Shimmering Grotto's big brother may not be an exciting land but I mean I can't imagine that you'd exclude this from very many of your shells. Combo generals, sure, it's conceivable, but really, how frequently are you never going to use your general in combat? This obviously makes some generals very good (Animar, Malath, Skullbriar) and it's certainly lackluster for others but I mean the cost of running it just seems so trivial that I don't see how you could hold anything against this card's existence. It's simply a decent way to splice a bit of additional value on your Commander whenever you have the spare mana to do so. That seems solid enough to me.

Rating: N/A
Not Cubeworthy
8
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Prid3

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