I didn't see a thread made yet, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling. Truth be told, this seems like a poor set for my Cube, I don't see much in the way of cards I want to test. Curious to see if any cards caught anyone else's eye this spoiler season!
Most of the set mechanics didn’t jive with what I’m going for in cube:
Investigate is a great returning mechanic and I’m happy to be including Sharp-Eyed Rookie and Lonis, Genetics Expert.
Disguise looks very fun for MKM limited where there will be a high density of disguise cards, but it isn’t a good enough rate for cube, and to keep the face-down mystery going you would need to devote a high density of cube slots to disguise cards.
Cloak could work in cube, but I haven’t seen a specific card I wanted to add. I can imagine power level tweaks that would have gotten there... maybe if Veiled Ascension triggered the turn you played it, or if Vannifar, Evolved Enigma cloaked from the top of a library instead of from your hand?
Suspect is a downside mechanic and it’s hard to track, which are both strikes against it.
Collect evidence cards work against one another, against other graveyard-as-resource mechanics like delve and reanimate, and against graveyardcountingcards.
Cases I was very hyped for and was hoping for something to include, as this kind of ETB effect + mini-quest enchantment can be a lot of fun. I’m not sure which specific case card(s) would fit in a cube environment. For me Case of the Gateway Express (the ETB is nice with lifelink or deathtouch, but vulnerable to instant speed creature removal) and Case of the Shifting Visage are closest. The timing restriction of solving on your end step makes the payoffs all a little slow.
Pretty mundane set overall. I'm actually testing a lot of cards (thanks, Surveil duals!), but most are either sidegrades, very slight upgrades, or straight up functional reprints.
Hot Takes:
We think people are sleeping on Delney, Streetwise Lookout, not seeing her being added to many cubes. Also, if you look at your red section and have all the goblins that generate tokens, I would take a good look at warleader's call. We have recently had people run the tables with red/white tokens and this card will make that deck even better.
Question:
We want to like Unyielding Gatekeeper (blink support/save your dudes/remove a threat), but with all that tech is it still too slow/mana-hungry for its effect?
Another card we keep considering is Cryptic Coat. It has a lot of potential synergies with Blink and card advantage, but is it too slow?
And I'll grab the surveil lands after they get super cheap.
I think Final-Word Phantom is my favorite new card. Looks very fair and very fun. As always, I'm not looking for the most powerful cards. Just the fun ones.
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Makeshift Binding replaces Quarantine Field
Proft's Eidetic Memory replaces Forbid
Steamcore Scholar replaces Barrin, Tolarian Archmage
Sharp-Eyed Rookie replaces Quirion Beastcaller
Edit: Lonis, Genetics Expert replaces Duskwatch Recruiter
Most of the set mechanics didn’t jive with what I’m going for in cube:
- Escape Tunnel
- Sharp-Eyed Rookie
for artifact cube there are a few, and most of them are Clue related:
Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy
Forensic Gadgeteer
Sharp-Eyed Rookie
Demand Answers
Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy
Lonis, Genetics Expert
Novice Inspector
Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth OR
Ezrim, Agency Chief (Im inclined to use the latter)
Will introduce more Clue cards now that there is a lot of clue interactions!
WHITE
- Novice Inspector
BLUE
- crickets
BLACK
- Long Goodbye
RED
- Demand Answers
- Headliner Scarlett
- Carnage Interpreter (maybe)
GREEN
- crickets
OTHER
- No More Lies
- Ransom Letter
- Surveil duals
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
MKM is weak overall.
Slamming:
Carnage interpreter
Headliner scarlett
testing:
novice inspector
forensic gadgeteer (maybe)
kellan, inquisitive prodigy (maybe)
Unruly Krasis (CLU)(maybe)
a few cards I have my eye on as sleepers/roleplayers, but uninterested in testing at the moment.
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for artifact cube there are a few, and most of them are Clue related:
Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy
Forensic Gadgeteer
Sharp-Eyed Rookie
Demand Answers
Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy
Lonis, Genetics Expert
Novice Inspector
Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth OR
Ezrim, Agency Chief (Im inclined to use the latter)
Will introduce more Clue cards now that there is a lot of clue interactions!
Adding:
Novice Inspector
Escape Tunnel
Testing:
Carnage Interpreter
Headliner Scarlet
Ransom Note
The surveil land cycle
Strangely enough the easiest includes (being upgrades to existing cards) are also the least exciting, as they don't add THAT much compared to what they replace: Headliner Scarlet (for Hero of Oxid Ridge) and Escape Tunnel (for Evolving Wilds).
I am excited about testing Anzrag, the Quake-Mole, and I also want to test Lazav, Wearer of Faces and Afterlife Insurance.
Watch list: Vein Ripper, Case of the Gorgon's Kiss, Case of the Stashed Skeleton, Case of the Locked Hothouse, Carnage Interpreter, Proft's Eidetic Memory, Intrude on the Mind and Sludge Titan.
White:
None
Blue:
None
Black:
None
Red:
Hellrider -> Headliner Scarlett
Invasion of Mercadia -> Demand Answers
Green:
None
Multicolor:
Fetid Pools -> Undercity Sewers
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling -> Lazav, Wearer of Faces (moving Rona to blue)
Edric, Spymaster of Trest -> Unruly Krasis
Colorless:
Shimmerdrift Vale -> Escape Tunnel
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
Delney, Streetwise Lookout (We think people are sleeping on this one)
Novice Inspector
Call a Surprise Witness (Testing)
Blue:
Nothing
Black:
Massacre Girl, Known Killer (Testing)
Red:
headliner scarlet
Green:
archdruid's charm
Multicolor:
warleader's call (We support Boros tokens, this is a slam dunk for that)
carnage interpreter
sludge titan
unruly krasis
New Surveil Land cycle
Colorless:
Nothing
Hot Takes:
We think people are sleeping on Delney, Streetwise Lookout, not seeing her being added to many cubes. Also, if you look at your red section and have all the goblins that generate tokens, I would take a good look at warleader's call. We have recently had people run the tables with red/white tokens and this card will make that deck even better.
Question:
We want to like Unyielding Gatekeeper (blink support/save your dudes/remove a threat), but with all that tech is it still too slow/mana-hungry for its effect?
Another card we keep considering is Cryptic Coat. It has a lot of potential synergies with Blink and card advantage, but is it too slow?
Is No More Lies better or worse than then Supreme Verdict?
Considering: Sharp-Eyed Rookie and Carnage Interpreter
Maybe considering: surveil duals and Sludge Titan.
And I'll grab the surveil lands after they get super cheap.
I think Final-Word Phantom is my favorite new card. Looks very fair and very fun. As always, I'm not looking for the most powerful cards. Just the fun ones.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
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My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
headliner scarlett in for hellrider
intrude on the mind in for thought monitor
Pretty standard stuff. Think headliner will be in for a long time. Can't see the others staying long term.
https://cubecobra.com/content/article/dfa9da1b-fd81-4969-8579-05d30baf34b8
Sorry for the delay on this, it was sitting in their article queue for over a week.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
Awesome! Thanks for the article!