Ojutai Exemplars: A Blinking 4 mana 4/4 with lifelink and first strike sounds powerful enough to consider fielding this guy. Isochron Scepter and such are real cards and it even triggers off of things like Oblivion Ring. I don't think that an avergae White deck will be interested in this guy but a RW/Jeskai spell-based deck could probably use them as a resilient blocker.
Rating: 1.5/5
Not Cubeworthy
Profound Journey: At 7 mana you have to be recurring endgame bombs to get any legitimate value from this thing. It's nice that it can buy Enchantments and whatnot back but ultimately it's not better than things like Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Sun Titan, Angel of Serenity, etc. on average. It's just not consistently powerful enough to warrant its 7 CMC pricetag.
Rating: 1.5/5
Not Cubeworthy
Sunscorch Regent: I've come down a lot on Forgotten Ancient and I don't foresee myself being excited to jam a weaker version that costs more mana in my lists. The evasion and lifegain are obviously swell bonuses but they'll never change the fact that this guy is just another big, dumb 5+ CMC creature that dies to removal at no benefit. If you're looking for a generic playable that won't cost you any money then it's certainly reasonable but I'm not expecting miracles from this type of threat. I'd rather just play Archon of Justice.
Rating: 2/5
Cubeworthy
Shorecrash Elemental: WOOHOOOOO! A good Blue creature that costs <= 3 mana! It's not quite a Boros Reckoner but I'll take something that can legitimately threaten opposing creatures looking to get into the Red Zone. I love the synergy that this thing has with Master of Waves (it's an Elemental) and I can't wait to build a deck that fields 4 of each. The pseudo vigilance is also nice and makes this thing feel like a mini Aetherling. Lategame you can sink a ton of mana into it if needed which is always going to be better than doing nothing. This isn't some insane bomb that will dominate games and it's probably too weak for EDH but if you're someone like me who's always looking out for solid bodies that you can cast on turns 1-3 then it certainly qualifies. This is a "must buy" from the set for someone like me.
Rating: 3.5/5
Not Cubeworthy (too color intensive)
Stratus Dancer: A 3/2 flier that counters a spell that you can also run out on turn 2 as a blocker seems like a "something." The reality of the matter is that some people play in exceptionally aggressive metas that necessitate curving out so I could envision a world in which this card is played. I wouldn't advocate sleeving it up and treating it as a generic playable or anything but Blue doesn't have amazing 2 drops in general so I wouldn't be flabbergasted to see this thing flipped up at some point in my lifetime.
Rating: 1/5
Not Cubeworthy
Deathbringer Regent: 7 mana is a lot to pay for a Wrath of God with an upside which leaves me doubtful that I'll be seeing much of this card. I'd rather play things like Crux of Fate that're cheaper or Decree of Pain that're significantly stronger. Even Necromantic Selection has the upside of being able to recur things like Titans and Primordials which are are almost always going to be infinitely more valuable than a 5/6 flier. I like that this guy is a creature i.e. that he's recurrable but the conditions are a big turn-off. At that point you may as well just play with Reiver Demon and/or Dread Cacodemon to avoid hitting your mobs entirely. Last time I checked Sepulchral Primordial is still a buck and it's still completely ridiculous so until that changes I don't see much of a reason to play with cards like these.
Rating: 2/5
Cubeworthy
Risen Executioner: As much as I'd want to like a self-recurring zombie lord the combination of "can't block" and "**** you self-mill" kills the card for me. There's just no world where I'd play this over Graveborn Muse, Vengeful Dead, Undead Warchief, Tombstone Stairwell or just about anything really.
Rating: 1/5
Not Cubeworthy
Sidisi, Undead Vizier: Diabolic Intent has never been the strongest card in the world but tacking it on to a creature makes it infinitely more enticing. This card seems absolutely busted in EDH given her ability to tutor up any number of 2 card kill combos and if nothing else you can just fetch your Skullclamp/Contamination and put your Bloodghast/Reassembling Skeleton/Nether Traitor to work. She seems completely absurd in that sense and I look forward to finding some oppressively obnoxious things to do with her. With respect to Constructed/Cube she's obviously going to be less good but that isn't really saying much now is it? At 4/6 she's realistically going to eat most 1-5 CMC critters and even if people power out some bombs she can still trade with anything. Black has the best recursive threats to begin with and plenty of solid equipment (such as Lashwrithe) to ensure that they'll be relevant draws at every stage of the game so you don't need to feel bad about slotting them into your lists to support her. Remember, there are plenty of Flesh Carvers and Sadistic Hypnotists out there so you shouldn't have a problem finding enough incentive to jam a few recursive durdles in your brews. The biggest strike against Sidisi is that she competes with Gray Merchant of Asphodel (and even Bloodgift Demon to a lesser extent), a fight she'll probably never win, but I still like the card as a generic playable. Again, I want to stress that I expect her to be an EDH powerhouse but she does lose a lot of value outside of the format. With respect to Cube, you really need to be playing with recursive durdles to justify slotting her in. The base stats are "fine" and Diabolic Intent is "fine" but if you're pitching a legitimate threat then she's definitely not worthwhile.
Rating: 4/5 in EDH, 2.5/5 in Constructed, 3/5 in Cubes with support
Conditionally Cubeworthy
Silumgar Asssassin: I'm not exactly scrambling to play with Gatekeeper of Malakir in any of my decks and the pseudo-evasion is nigh worthless. If it were just plain unblockable I would actually like this card but the fact that it turns-off if you equip a Lashwrithe (or whatever) to it is a big letdown.
Rating: 1/5
Not Cubeworthy
Assault Force: Even a significantly better version of Hellion Eruption doesn't seem especially appealing to me. Red-based token decks aren't amazing to begin with and there are significantly better alternatives that don't lose horrendously to removal. Eldrazi Conscription provides resilience, Coat of Arms provides immediate burst, etc. It's obviously nice that you can use this to nuke key threats and downgrade them to 4/4 fliers but that's still a real card that needs to be dealt with. All-in-all I just can't think of a compelling reason to play with this card.
Rating: 1/5
Not Cubeworthy
Dragon Tempest: Now THIS is a card that I can get behind. Dragon decks have always suffered immensely in the face of removal primarily because it's hard to fit good draw into Red decks and if you're playing with 6-8 CMC dragons then you need to field some ramp. Given that most Dragons don't offer much in the way of significant + immediate benefit the strategy has never been especially powerful. You play some dudes, they die, you lose because you're now out of gas and you're drawing into do-nothing ramp. Dragon Tempest is stellar in the sense that it provides all of your threats with immediate impact. Haste is a very powerful keyword to tack on to to things like Balefire Dragon and Utvara Hellkite and the ping definitely adds up, especially if Scourge of Valkas is also floating around. It's also something cheap to do with your mana before you start chaining your bombs which is something that most ramp decks sorely need. This is way, way, way better than Crucible of Fire and I highly recommend that you play with it in your Dragon lists.
Rating: 3/5 (in Dragon decks)
Not Cubeworthy
Lightning Berserker: A good 1 drop, to me, should be something that you won't feel embarrassed to draw on turn 8. Fireball, to no one's surprise, is a good draw on turn 10. While I wouldn't go around jamming this into every Red deck that you build this is certainly a solid playable in extremely aggressive metas. I'm a big fan of playing with defensive Shades in Nykthos,Shrine to Nyx decks who can randomly kill people later on if left unchecked. You need a reason to play with this kind of card, there's no reason to play with 1 drops if you don't have to, but I could legitimately see myself playing this card in Constructed if I were worried about being aggro'd down.
Rating: 2/5
Not Cubeworthy
Deathmist Raptor: I'm a fan of recursive threats with Deathtouch but the condition is far too narrow for this to ever be a generic playable. It's obviously fine in dedicated Morph/Manifest decks but that's not saying very much in my mind.
Rating: 3/5 (when supported)
Cubeworth
Den Protector: I've come around on Eternal Witness a lot in the past few years to the point where I'm willing to play a weaker version of it in singleton formats such as EDH and Cube. My problem with these kinds of cards has always been that they're usually bad on turn 3 because most people don't actually own Fetchlands which means that they're basically just 6-7 drops at which point you may as well play with more 6-7 drops. Sylvan Primordial changed everything though (at least for me) and made it realistic for you to cast giant Genesis Waves/cPrimal Surges and to buy them back with Eternal Witnesses. Den Protector is obviously worse but Sylvan Primordial renders mana requirements irrelevant anyways so paying 5 for a 3 mana effect becomes much more tolerable. It's fine to recur this with Genesis and it even works nicely with Kessig Wolf Run. Granted, KWR grants Trample so blockers aren't especially troublesome but it's still nice to pump up unblockable critters whenever possible. This card is too much weaker than Eternal Witness for me to give it a serious grade but it's still a serviceable Magic card.
Rating: 2/5
Not Cubeworthy
Foe-Razer Regent: The bar for Green 7 drops is way too high for me to even consider playing one that loses to spot removal. Rampaging Baloths (it's a virtual 7 drop), Sepulchral Primordial, Hornet Queen, Avenger of Zendikar and more are all infinitely superior.
Rating: 1/5
Not Cubeworthy
Shaman of Forgotten Ways: A Worn Powerstone with a relevant body that gets a free Biorhythm tacked-on? I'll take 10 please! Remember, this kind of card isn't replacing Craterhoof Behemoth/Tooth and Nail in your lists. It's a ramp card that just so happens to act as another big finisher if needed. This means that even when do you draw it on turn 7 when you have access to 30 mana that it'll still be a relevant draw, unlike say Carpet of Flowers or Frontier Siege. I'm a huge fan of this card in that sense I can't wait to whip it out in EDH. It's somewhat unfortunate that you have untap with this guy to get his effect but Lightning Greaves and Thousand-Year Elixir are cards that're making the cut in your Elf-ball EDH decks anyways so you'll definitely have outs to activate this thing immediately. It's also worth noting that being a creature is a massive upside because it means that you're able to Summoner's Pact, Green Sun's Zenith, Chord of Calling, Birthing Pod, etc. this guy into play as needed. Sure, Craterhoof Behemoth is USUALLY better but gaining infinite life is a real thing in EDH and activating this on turn ~4-5 in an 8 player game is probably significantly more damage.
Rating 3.5/5
Cubeworthy
Arashi Sovereign: "Aetherlings" are significantly weaker in a multiplayer setting in the sense that they kill far too slowly to ever provide true inevitability. These kinds of cards are never as good as they may otherwise appear in that sense.
Rating 1/5
Not Cubeworthy
Atarka's Command: I think that "Sizzle" decks filled with Price of Progresseses and whatnot are almost unplayable so I couldn't foresee myself ever playing with this card nowadays. It's far too aggressively slanted for my tastes.
Rating 1/5
Not Cubeworthy
Dragonlord Atarka: I'll still take Bogardan Hellkite any day of the week thanks. That being said I don't mind this card because it's enormous + it provides an immediate impact. I'm nto overly concerned about the fact that she can't dome players because I've basically never seen Bogardan Hellkite go to the dome to begin with. Someone always has something more threatening to remove. She's not exciting by any means but if she crept her way into an EDH deck I wouldn't be surprised to see her hit the field. I wouldn't expect to see much of her in Constructed outside of uber-Budget decks but hey, you never know.
Rating 2/5
Cubeworthy
Dragonlord Dromoka, Dragonlord Kolaghan: There's some merit to fielding threats that force your opponents to react in specific ways but I generally dislike these kinds of threats in multiplayer. Far more often than not their textboxes are relatively blank which makes them overcosted, underpowered finishers that never accomplish much of anything.
Rating 1.5/5
Not Cubeworthy
Dragonlord Ojutai: It has "Hexproof" and "draw a card" on it so it immediately intrigues me more than the other dragons. Barring a Wrath it's not going to die the turn that you play it and even though it's vulnerable on O by then you'll have untapped mana to protect it with Forbid, Dismiss, Cryptic Command, etc. At that point you have a giant Thieving Magpie who still has legitimate defensive value if needed.
Rating 2.5/5
Cubeworthy
Dragonlord Silumgar: Callous Oppressor, at 3 mana, is good. Sower of Temptation, at 4 mana, is playable. Silumgar, at 6 mana, is horrible. The obvious saving grace to the card is that you can steal and ult/self-kill Planeswalkers but that's a difficult thing to evaluate in a vacuum. In the dark I'd say that the card is stone-unplayable but that opinion is heavily biased in the sense that I think 'Walkers are horrendous in general. In my experience they come down, do their +1 or +2 and die to some evasive beater immediately. I can count the number of 'Walker ultimates that I've seen on 1 hand (it's 1) because there's just no reason to ever leave those things alive and it's virtually impossible to cast them on stable boards. In that sense I see Silumgar as a very expensive and bad Sower of Temptation who'll rarely provide adequate value. His stock clearly rises in decks with dedicated sacrifice outlets but in general I wouldn't want to have this type of 6 drop in my lists.
Rating 1.5/5
Not Cubeworthy
Harbinger of the Hunt: A 5/3 flier with an upside for 5 is "fine" but at 3 mana I just couldn't imagine playing this thing and expecting to get any worthwhile value from it. Killing 1-2 drops is "something" but that's not what I want to be doing with my time and mana on turn ~6.
Rating 1/5
Not Cubeworthy
Narset Transcendent: 'Walkers like these are unplayable trash in my opinion. She's going to be a 4 mana draw .3 cards spell in my circles which is exactly as unplayable as it sounds. Doubling up on draw spells/Swords to Plowshares/ etc. is "fine" but it's snot something that I'll willing to tap out at Sorcery speed to do in the vast majority of my games. Her ultimate is also garbage in the sense that it basically doesn't do anything. Obviously you can combo it with Humility and whatnot to make it relevant but if your combo involves ulting a 'Walker then you're living in Magical Christmas Land. I like that Doubling Season allows for an instant ult activation but, again, you need at least 1 more card (Humility/Moat) to lock the game up from there and that's way too fair + slow + unreliable for my tastes. I woudl actively put this card in opposing UW decks because I just don't care if people play these kinds of cards in a multiplayer setting.
Rating 2/5
Not Cubeworthy
Necromaster Dragon: A 5 drop that has to deal combat damage and pay mana to produce a 2/2 and a bit of mill? In one of the strongest color combinations in the game? Dear God no.
Rating 1/5
Not Cubeworthy
Ojutai's Command: People love toolbox cards/enablers in general and Commands certainly qualify. Even if they're not the best cards in the world their flexibility and power will always make them fan favorites. Besides, I'll happily play with the card Dismiss in any multiplayer format and this is ostensibly a more flexible version of the card. The inability to counter game-ending bombs such as Rite of Replication, Insurrection and Exsanguinate is obviously a legitimate drawback but you'll always nail something amazing and nab your free card in the process. This card's stock rises dramatically in lists that have access to Stoneforge Mystic because then your 2-for-1 becomes a 3-for-1 and it all happens at instant speed at EOT. I'm not thrilled with this card or anything, the 4 life seems relatively useless and not every deck is going to have amazing 2 drops to recur but at the end of the day it's hard for a Dismiss with additional modes to be bad (just look at Cryptic Command) so I'm sure this will have some amount of long-term value in the multiplayer sphere.
Rating 2/5
Cubeworthy
Pristine Skywise: How the Hell is that a name for a Dragon? Either way I don't actively hate this card like I do with his brothers because it's a legitimately good threat on both O and D. A 6/4 evasive beater is a real clock and it's difficult to attack into a critter that can untap itself and gain coloreds protections. It's not amazing by any means, it's no Sun Titan or whatever, but it's a big evasive body that always threatens favorable blocks making it a solid (but unexciting) playable.
Rating 2.5/5
Cubeworthy
Sarkhan Unbroken: This is what a multiplayer Planeswalker needs to look like. The obvious application of this guy is to play him in a Double Season deck, fetch Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund and a whack of other Dragons and win on the spot. Scion of the Ur-Dragon EDH maybe. Even without Haste his ultimate will probably win the game more often than not. otherwise the card is a baseline 4/4 flyer for 5 with an upside. Clearly no one would play a Serra Angel by choice but it's not atrocious given the upside of having a card that can win the game on the spot. Otherwise you can always use it to cycle (which clearly isn't great) which is still better than what a lot of other Walkers can provide for you. Again, the key here is that the card can just plain win the game on the spot if cast alongside Doubling Season and since every Green EDH deck already plays that card I have to think that this card will see some play. All of the abilities are powerful, aggressively costed and generate card advantage which means that you don't need him to survive for very long to get your mana's worth. Obviously he's not some bomb that will dominate the game every time that he's cast but there's more than enough going on here to interest someone like me who typically despises Planeswalkers.
Rating 3/5
Not Cubeworthy
Silumgar's Command: Why does this thing cost 5 mana? It's absolutely awful. Counter-kill is a nice swing, I'll give it that, but every other combo just seems atrocious. I do expect to see this card played a fair amount if only because it's a Command and "it's cool" but this isn't what you want to be doing in a multiplayer setting in my mind. Profane Command was amazing because it was almost impossible to construct a scenario where you weren't ecstatic to cast some combination of it. This card feels similar except I could easily see myself not feeling good about most of the options. I do realize that it's Instant vs Sorcery and obviously the Sorcery will have the stronger effect but I just don't see why I'd want to cast this at EOT in my UB decks. I'd much rather resolve a Fact of Fiction/Jace's Ingenuity or something and draw a whack of cards than go for some small tempo play.
Rating 1.5/5
Not Cubeworthy
Evolving Wilds: Every player needs 10 of these. It's cheap color fixing, Delve enabling, library manipulation, etc. Reprint it as much as you Wizards.
Rating: 4/5
Cubeworthy
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