This is my 22nd installment of the "top 20" set preview articles! Just like the previous reviews, it will be in a spoiled top X countdown format, with each section having an image, a brief summary/description, and my verdict on what cubes I think it could potentially see some play in. I got a lot of positive feedback on the format from the last few articles, so I’m going to keep the “what I like” and “what I don’t like” sections.
Keep in mind (just like the others) that this is a set preview. Similar to draft predictions in professional sports, this list is an educated guess at best. Some cards I value highly in here may turn out to not last long in the cube. Other cards that are lower down on the list (or even missed entirely!) could (well, very likely may) turn out to be great cards. Even Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round! Again, this is not intended to be gospel, set in stone or written as a review for posterity. This is simply written to be an enjoyable guess at cards I like for cubes, and hopefully it'll allow some cube managers to evaluate cards they may have otherwise overlooked and/or put some cards in perspective that may've been overhyped. Nothing more.
Hour of Devastation had the exact opposite problem as Amonkhet when it came to writing a top 20 article. Amonkhet was full of solid playable cube cards worthy of discussion, and it was really hard to prune down to 20. Hour of Devastation has very few good cards for this format, and I was really stretching to find cards to add to the list. I was able to find 20 I thought were interesting enough to merit discussion, and I’ll go over them with you here.
What I Like: Hitting both creatures and planeswalkers provides a unique answer to often problematic boards. And 5 damage is a threshold that will kill a good majority of all its potential targets.
What I Don't Like: Sweepers like this can be hard to make asymmetrical, particularly in red where it kills pretty much every creature and planeswalker that control decks might elect to include in their final 40. Additionally, 5cc sweepers have historically proven to be too slow in this format, even in decks that are backed up by cheap removal spells. In matchups against midrange decks where you might be able to afford to wait an extra turn to sweep the board away, your deck is already favored. But against aggressive decks that are really applying early pressure, 5 mana is just too slow to wipe the board. Cards like Rolling Earthquake can provide a similar effect, but they have huge advantages over Hour of Devastation, namely costing only a single red mana, being able to scale so they can be cast earlier in the game if your under pressure, controlling the damage cap to leave your X/5 creatures and ‘walkers alive, and being able to kill an opposing planeswalker without damaging your own.
Verdict: If you play a lot of red control decks that don’t run almost exclusive collateral damage targets in them, Hour of Devastation can be a powerful card in a midrange dominated meta. And even then, it’s going to be hard to find room outside of particularly large lists.
What I Like: Dreamstealer can be a reasonable substitute for Hypnotic Specter in lists that are trying to prune down on their 1BB cost 3-drops. While it loses the 2nd power and the random discard, it has the ceiling of hitting more cards when you increase its power via another effect, and it has built-in card advantage value against removal thanks to the Eternalize. Speaking of which, this creature is pretty monstrous after it’s returned from the grave; decimating the opponent’s hand with a single connection and being a 4/4 menace is nothing to scoff at.
What I Don't Like: Black’s 3cc creatures are quite competitive now, and it can be hard to find room for generic “solid role-players” when a lot of the options help support specific strategies.
Verdict: I think Dreamstealer has a chance to be a solid filler 3-drop for larger cubes, especially ones keeping an eye on their mana demand and looking for easier to cast creatures in the middle of the curve. I might be able to find room to test this if my cube was in the 720+ range.
What I Like: Not that long ago, 1R for a 2/1 haste might’ve been enough to make it into cubes on its own. Add in some blocking disruption and a free late-game recursive body and you’d have yourself an easy inclusion. It’s nice to have a creature that can be reasonably effective on T2, in addition to sneaking in a 6cc threat into an aggro deck without dedicating a slot in your final 40 to it.
What I Don't Like: The blocking disruption is very limited. If there’s a 3/3 creature stonewalling your Jackal Pups, this card can’t help you push damage through. And while the Eternalize is essentially just an added bonus, 6 mana is a lot of mana to ask of a red control deck.
Verdict: I think this Earthshaker dude is a fine filler 2cc red creature for larger cubes, but the lack of effective blocking disruption and relatively anemic body once the haste wears off will prevent it from doing any reasonable lifting in a smaller cube. Might be worth testing out over other fringe options in 720+ card cubes.
What I Like: In Delver-style spells matters beatdown decks, a 3/3 flying attacker that’s immune to sorcery-speed creature removal is pretty interesting. As an enchantment, it triggers your other prowess creatures, and the repeatable scry effect can filter you into other cheap spells that can keep it animated.
What I Don't Like: Despite being a cost-effective beater for a spells matters tempo shell, it’s too fair and inconsistent of a card for other beatdown strategies, and traditional control shells play their spells too reactively to make effective use of its body. And the cost on the scry trigger is pretty high to be used as a utility enchantment.
Verdict: Larger cubes supporting a dedicated spells matters tempo deck might want to give this card a trial run. In the right deck, it can be a reliable evasive beater that dodges a lot of removal. If I was playing a 720+ card cube and had a prowess shell supported, I’d be giving Riddleform a chance to prove itself.
What I Like: Similar to Riddleform, Firebrand Archer can be a good support card for spell-heavy tempo shells. There’s only so many Swiftspears and Delvers that the shell can include, and this can help you increase your threat density with a creature that has a reasonable body for the cost and can provide some free reach as the game goes on. It’s a more cost-effective beater than a card like Guttersnipe, and triggering off of all your noncreature spells can widen the range of decks it might be playable in.
What I Don't Like: One extra damage isn’t a ton, and due to its lack of combat abilities, most of your burn that might trigger his ability will have to be aimed at the opponent’s board to free up your attacks. Also, similar to most of your spells matters support cards, it can be a relatively poor topdeck since it needs to resolve as early as possible to leverage its advantage.
Verdict: Larger cubes supporting a dedicated spells matters tempo deck might want to give this card a chance. In the right deck, it can provide a consistent form of reach and may actually demand an answer to keep it under control. If I was playing a 720+ card cube and had a prowess shell supported, I’d be adding Firebrand Archer to the ranks alongside Snappys and Pyromancers for a little extra depth at that role.
What I Like: This gives you a Control Magic effect that can’t be disenchanted, and can also work with your instants/sorceries matters kinds of cards, like Snapcaster and the like. In addition to being able to steal artifacts and enchantments; card types that once resolved can cause problems for heavy-blue decks.
What I Don't Like: While the Exhaustion drawback on this spell doesn’t hurt as bad as some of the others (thanks to the huge tempo swing that the effect provides) it is important to keep in mind how severe the drawback can be when things go wrong. If the opponent does have a cost-effective answer to the board right after this spell is cast, the tempo impact it has on the subsequent turn can be game ending. I tested this card out of excitement over the potential spell interactions, but the tempo setback in response to bounce or removal (especially if you’re relying on the stolen creature to protect you) was too much.
Verdict: This is a unique enough effect that players with larger cubes might be able to find time to give this card proper testing. But the competition in the blue spell slot for small and medium sized cubes is too steep for this spell anyways.
What I Like: This is largely a combo card. If your cube supports a Dark Depths combo or a Time Vault combo, this card is another piece on the puzzle that can help those strategies work. Once it finds its way into decks for combo shenanigans, it can also be used at face value to copy powerful permanents on the cheap and do cool things.
What I Don't Like: It’s a little too cost ineffective to be used for only its intended use, so unless the card provides some combo potential for your list, it’s probably not going to be worth it.
Verdict: Pretty simple. If your cubes support combo engines this can contribute to, include it. Otherwise, you can pass on it pretty easily.
What I Like: There aren’t any cards that can simply destroy all creatures regardless of life totals and toughness for 3 mana. Now, it’ll ultimately cost more mana than that, but the ability to cast the card to escape a troublesome situation early is pretty important. And unlike the other final god spells, since this kills everything on the board, it’ll give you some breathing room to survive the next turn’s tempo setback. I gave this card some pretty extensive testing after it was spoiled because it looked really interesting to me. The most important thing this card did over other sweepers was give me the ability to provide follow-up plays on the same turn before passing. With 6 mana, for example, I could resolve this to kill everything and resolve an Ophiomancer in the same turn, which both set up my defenses to mitigate the drawback or allow me to attack on the very next turn. No other sweeper in the cube would allow me to orchestrate that kind of play, and it occurred relatively often.
What I Don't Like: Ultimately the tempo drawback was just a little bit too much. It wasn’t as bad as most doomsday criers were speculating, but it was definitely something that could cause problems for you if you weren’t careful.
Verdict: This card was about as good as I expected it to be. It was a powerful and unique effect that sometimes felt like it was the only out that would’ve worked in a given situation, and other times felt like I would’ve been willing to exchange it for any other sweeper available. It’s tough to handle those kinds of swings, and ultimately it just didn’t work for the kinds of players in my group because of that. I would be willing to consider this as low as maybe 630 cards or so, and I’d be playing it in a 720+ card cube for sure.
What I Like: The fact that this effect is strapped to a body keeps it from being card disadvantage, which is pretty neat. I like having Careful Study kinds of effects floating around, and when you can filter without the cost of a card, it’s pretty beneficial. And that’s just in its first form. The Eternalize mode on the card provides quite a bit of card advantage, considering you get a 4-power body and you essentially draw 2 cards, giving you +3 card advantage off the “flashback” mode alone. It’s nice to have a card that’s both good at filling the graveyard AND provides value from the graveyard itself.
What I Don't Like: The only real knocks on the card are the costs. The effect is absolutely worth 3 mana, but the timing is unfortunate since most decks trying to abuse the graveyard are hoping to be using the graveyard on T3 at the latest, and this binds up your resources on that turn. Additionally, despite the Eternalize component being really powerful, Wizards accounted for that in the design, and costed it appropriately. 7 mana is about what that effect should cost, but it’s certainly very expensive.
Verdict: Blue is a hard section to find cuts in, but in cubes 720 or bigger supporting graveyard strategies in blue, you might want to give Champion a change to prove its worth. Depending on the speed of your graveyard strategies, it might be playable in some 630 sized cubes too.
What I Like: There’s a lot to like about this creature. The evasion and the prowess can make it a reasonable beater for spells matters tempo decks, and the spell recursion can be really powerful with the right cards to Reclaim. Powered cubes in particular can snag cards like Walk and Recall which will make the Entity pretty absurd. I like the interaction it has with itself; setting up another draw that will trigger itself and all your other prowess stuff.
What I Don't Like: In order to really put it over the top, I think it either needed flash, haste or needed to put the returned spell into your hand instead of to the top of your deck. It’s just a little slow and completely telegraphs all the things it can do for you.
Verdict: Izzet sections aren’t so filled with powerhouse cards that Entity can’t see play as a roleplayer in some lists. Powered cubes supporting Delver shells might be able to find room for Entity as maybe the #6 or so Izzet cards, with unpowered cubes right behind them. I might test this out in the 630-720 range due to that.
What I Like: It’s nice that red can get some more incidental discard outlets in the color, and it can serve as a backup card in that role in a pinch. The primary use for the Minotaur is just dominating combat. It can hit hard if you have extra cards to pitch to it, but similar to Mongrel, it’s the threat of activation that’s going to cause the most problems for your opponent. Because of the first strike, the opponent can’t really afford to attack into or block Minotaur with anything smaller than a 5/5. It can be a pretty dominating presence on the battlefield, for a relatively low cost.
What I Don't Like: Despite its value as a beater, it’s not a particularly good discard outlet. Graveyard decks want their discard outlets to pitch cards on the cheap (preferably free) and the fact that this costs mana to activate does several things to it. First, it makes it susceptible to removal before it has a chance to bin your important graveyard card (unless you wait until you have 4+ mana to cast it). Second, it interferes with your ability to cast the graveyard interaction spell and use the Minotaur’s ability in the same turn, often delaying your reanimation effect by a turn (greatly reducing its effectiveness).
Verdict: Ultimately, a red Wild Mongrel this is not. It’s still a solid beatdown creature, and it can play the roll of filler/backup discard outlet until we get a better one, but its lack of prowess as a discard outlet will keep it from shining in most smaller cubes. If the discard cost no mana but only provided +1/+0, this would’ve been an instant staple for even the smallest of cubes. But the mana cost in the activated ability is a big deal. I might play this at 630 or 720, myself, just as a stopgap until something better comes along.
What I Like: This is far and away my favorite of the new land cycle, because the activated ability is often worth a full card. There are a ton of X/2 creatures in the cube, and a lot of them are worthy of aiming a removal spell at. The nice part about the Deadlands is that it just replaces a Swamp during deckbuilding, giving you a nice removal option at a really low opportunity cost. Tapping for colorless mana can be relevant for some decks, and it can still provide black mana without entering the battlefield tapped! It also has fun interactions with Crucible and Loam effects, which is nice to have.
What I Don't Like: The ability effectively costs you 5 mana and a land in order to kill something, which isn’t a small price. And being limited to activating at sorcery speed stops this from being a threat that can impact combat math at a moment’s notice. Ultimately my only two gripes about the card.
Verdict: This card is probably even better than it looks, and there’s a good chance that it might get a trial run in my cube for a while. But I would give this extensive testing at 630 and probably snap-include it at 720+.
What I Like: This card has quite a bit of flexibility. It can go on the beatdown plan; being splashable a 3/1 flying creature with flash for 3 mana, or it can be used to disrupt the opponent’s gameplan by cancelling their activated abilities. It’s uncounterable in Stifle mode, and it draws you a card too. Well worth the 3 mana in matchups where the opponent has a lot of targets for the effect.
What I Don't Like: Both of its modes are solid, but it’s missing the broken option of being both. I would’ve gladly sacrificed the cycling part of the effect to make it an enters the battlefield trigger instead. The scenarios of being able to Stifle a fetchland activation while adding 3 evasive power to the board is just so exciting, and ultimately not what you get here.
Verdict: Vendillion Clique this is not. Largely because you choose between the body and the disruption instead of getting both. I tested it for a while after it was spoiled, and it was a 3/1 flying flash a lot of the time. Too much of the time for my tastes. When I cast it without Stifling something, it felt like a waste of a Stifle effect, and when I stifled an ability with it, I felt like I was throwing a body away. I just couldn’t find a permanent slot for it at 540, but it would very likely be my next 3cc creature to include in blue, making it a 630+ creature for me.
What I Like: It’s nice to be able to choose between Mana Leaking a spell and casting an Impulse; whatever the current gamestate calls for. And for a 1-mana tax, you get both options in one card. Pass with 3 mana open, counter a spell if they play one or Impulse at the end of their turn. It’s a card that will slot in very naturally into most blue decks, and it will be an intuitive and easy card to use.
What I Don't Like: Both effects are decent, but neither is particularly powerful at 3 mana. The tax pays for the flexibility, but the card will never feel anything more than fair regardless of how you use it.
Verdict: This is my favorite 3cc blue counterspell not named Forbid. I would have room for it if my cube was 630 cards or bigger. Perhaps cubes not supporting the artifact.dec would have enough open slots in blue to play this at 540 or even 450.
What I Like: Using Eldrazi Displacer as a baseline, Angel gains flying, vigilance, a Journey to Nowhere activated ability and exchanges colorless costs to white costs …all for one extra white mana. Angel can dominate boards congested with cheap creatures, as a 3/3 vigilant flyer can cause problems for aggressive-sized bodies. Angel helps to support blink shells; flickering creatures in and out of play that provide enters the battlefield triggers for you as they do so.
What I Don't Like: Limiting the ability to once per turn really lowered the card’s average performance for me in comparison to Displacer, and the extra mana matters a lot once you’re spending 4+ mana on the card. It reminded me a little bit of Olivia Voldaren; it could take over a game if it was left unchecked, but ultimately the combination of being vulnerable to removal and being really mana intensive edged her out. My testing experience with the Angel was similar. The additional mana needed to be spent really compounds the issue of it being vulnerable to removal. Enough so that it won’t make it into my final set update.
Verdict: The best selling point for the Angel is the lack of premium competition in the 4cc white creature slot. There’s a ton of great spells, but only a few good creatures to compete with. Because of that, I could see Angel making it into quite a few cube lists. My ultimate verdict is probably a 630+ sized cube, but I could see it making the cut in smaller lists if you heavily support the blink decks, or if you’re disappointed with the other commonly run 4cc white creatures.
What I Like: Similar to the current Nicol Bolas, the new one is a lot of fun to use. Perhaps even moreso. The {+2} ability is a blast to use; cascading off the top of the opponent’s library and casting free spells is unique, powerful and creates some amazing cube stories. The {+1} ability has been surprisingly effective; an exile Mind Rot can really cripple the opponent’s hand, especially if you can catch them with just 2 or 3 cards left. But the crazy ability is the {-4} one …7 damage is a lot, and you’d be surprised how often the random 7-mana Fireball to the face can just kill the opponent. Or alternating between one of the plus abilities and a pair of the minus abilities can 14 the opponent over a series of a few turns and just win the game for you. And the ultimate is of course a powerful effect. The biggest difference between this Bolas and the original one is the cost. This Bolas resolves with more loyalty, but it also costs less mana and has less color demand. Both of those aspects are important. In a super-ramp deck with all the mana in the world, it’s not a huge difference. But for a random Grixis control deck, the difference between 7 and 8 is a lot, often 2+ turns faster. Not only that, but the more splashable mana demand opens up homes for the new Bolas where the old one would’ve been unplayable. Original Bolas was splashable as a red or blue splash, but the double black cost prevented it from being playable in an Izzet control deck splashing like 3 sources of black. The new one can fit into those slots.
What I Don't Like: It’s ultimately still a 7+ mana card that’s 3 colors, and it faces similar deck construction obstacles because of that. Not every deck wants a card that costs more than 6 mana that’s hard to cheat into play and can’t be reanimated.
Verdict: I think this is better than the original Nicol Bolas, and by a pretty significant margin too. After seeing it in action, it just wins games on its own far better than the original one could, and it’s more fun. And ultimately, that’s what cards like Nicol Bolas are about. They’re 7+cc 3-color planeswalkers. They’re not included to be the best or most powerful cards. They’re included because they’re fun and big and splashy, and the new Bolas beats the original Bolas at his own game. Cascading into free spells off the opponent’s library? 7 damage Fireballs being thrown around? It’s just a fun card! And with the cost reductions factored in, it can see play in more decks and resolves faster than the OG Bolas, and with more loyalty. At whatever cube size you decide to dedicate a slot to a Grixis card, that’s the size that Nicol Bolas should go in at. For me, that size is 540.
What I Like: Fencing Ace isn’t the most popular cube card, but there are playgroups that have success with it. Pouncer is just a much better version of the same card. Whenever a 2-power 2-drop gets printed that has the potential to generate card advantage over the course of a typical game gets printed, it needs to be evaluated closely to see if it’s good enough. And I think Pouncer gets there. It has interactions with equipment, anthems and battle cry effects even in its first form; it can attack for 8 with a Grafted Wargear on curve, or use OG Elspeth’s ability to jump over the opponent’s defenders for 8 damage. But the real selling point is the Eternalize. It provides you some wrath protection, because post sweeper you can spend 5 mana to give yourself a token creature that can bash for 8 all by itself. It’s nice to have that built-in value attached to a respectable baseline creature.
What I Don't Like: Since the Eternalize requires the card to be in the graveyard, Pouncer can be susceptible to exile-based removal. And the Eternalize token is vulnerable to bounce effects.
Verdict: I think this creature is a pretty easy include in 540 card cubes, and may be playable in some 450 card cubes depending on how happy you are with your current white 2-drop suite.
What I Like: The Scarab God reminds me a bit of a more resilient Meloku the Clouded Mirror. In that, I feel that if I can untap with it in play, I’m going to be in a good position to win the game. The Scarab God has good stats, it’s a hard-to-kill 5/5 creature for 5 mana, and it makes 4/4 creatures for 4 mana. Most of the creatures you can target with its ability are going to get a sizable benefit from the power/toughness modification, and there are a ton of utility and tempo creatures in both blue and black that get really good when you can return them as 4/4s. All the Vensers, Nekrataals, Shriekmaws, Mulldrifters and Simulacrums you can bring back into play give you all their triggers another time, and they become 4/4 versions of their former selves. After a single activation you’ll have 9 power worth of guys out, you’ll probably benefit from additional creature abilities, and then Scarab God’s passive abilities can start to go to work. Since all the creatures it creates are zombies, it has synergy with itself. And with even one eternalized critter on the board, Scarab God starts to provide some reach that can win irregardless of the red zone, and you can start stacking your library with scry triggers. In my (albeit limited) testing with it so far, the passive ability has proved to be quite useful when the ground is gummed up with blockers and tokens for the main creatures, but the reach matters and the scry stacks up value rather quickly. Scarab God is hard to kill, and with just a couple of dead creatures between the two graveyards (it can target the opponent’s ‘yard too) it represents the threat for 13+ power, multiple triggered abilities, passive repeatable effects and a lot of resiliency.
What I Don't Like: The only thing The Scarab God is really vulnerable against is exile-based removal. There are probably less than 10 real ways to deal with the Scarab God before it can generate value (unless you have 9+ mana available, in which case it can always generate value for you) and almost all of them are white.
Verdict: The best part about The Scarab God (as our very own Salmo pointed out) is the lack of competition in its particular role. There are a lot of good creatures in the 6+cc slot for both black and blue, but as far as 5cc creatures go, there aren’t any that can safely resolve on T5 that aren’t utility creatures. Tapout Dimir control decks don’t have a go-to 5cc creature that can start dominating the game, and The Scarab God fits in perfectly for this color combination. I think it has a good chance of being the 4th or 5th best Dimir card for the cube format, and I think it should see a reasonable amount of play in cubes 450-540 and bigger.
What I Like: Most dedicated artifact removal in the cube tends to either be expensive (attached to a body) or narrow (do nothing but destroy artifacts). I’ve been waiting for a good modal artifact removal spell in red, and Abrade really fits the bill. A user on reddit (handle mykenae) made a comparison that I really liked. They said that Abrade was essentially red’s Disenchant, exchanging the Erase mode with a “deal 3 damage to target creature” mode. When put into that context, Abrade looks to be a really fantastic utility spell.
What I Don't Like: Neither mode is going to be particularly impressive. A 2-mana Shatter effect is expensive by today’s standards, and dealing 3 damage to a creature isn’t exactly breaking the mold at 2-mana.
Verdict: This spell is affordable, flexible and it’s at instant speed. That’s how I like my utility cards, and I’m going to be pretty happy to play Abrade for the foreseeable future. I would include this in most 450 cubes, perhaps even smaller if you have a particular need for artifact removal.
What I Like: I’ve been wanting this creature (or something like it) for as long as I’ve been cubing. It helps add saturation to the Crucible/Loam strategies (recurring Strip Mines and Wastelands and fetches for value) in addition to helping shape a few archetypes. It’s great in Stax decks with Braids and Smokestack, it can be good in Armageddon decks as a way to make the land destruction asymmetrical, it can be used with Gargadon as a way to ramp for 1 once you’re out of land drops, it can replay lands that have been discarded or sacrificed in other ways …there’s just a lot of things you can do with Crucible effects. Additionally, since Excavator is also a respectable defensive body, it might be able to go into decks that may not be able to run Crucible (because there aren’t enough dedicated targets) but still randomly provide the ability to return dead manlands (Hissing Quagmire anybody?) and some other utility functions that might not be worth a card on their own.
What I Don't Like: In decks specifically trying to abuse Crucible effects (Strip Mine combo, etc) the fact that the Excavator can be killed by creature removal makes that combo more fragile. But otherwise, no complaints.
Verdict: I always want more support for Crucible/Loam strategies, and the opportunity cost for playing Excavator is much lower since it’s at least a dude on its own if nothing else. Depending on your cube configuration, Excavator can definitely be playable even in 360 card cubes. But once the cube gets above 405 cards in size, all 10 manlands make an appearance and some of the more fringe fetches appear …this card should find a home for sure.
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the article, and please feel free to comment below!
My Cubes - The Busted Cube. A fully functional, almost 100% custom cube. The project started out by asking "What if other colors got cards on the power level of Mana Drain,Ancestral Recall, and Time Walk?" Draft and enjoy!
Nice write up as usual, especially considering with what you had to work with...
One question I have: do you like Pouncer more than Trueheart Duelist? I haven't gotten a chance to test HOU and they are both very similar / different at the same time.
Nice write up as usual, especially considering with what you had to work with...
One question I have: do you like Pouncee more than Trueheart Duelist? I haven't gotten a chance to test HOU and they are both very similar / different at the same time.
Thanks!
I do like the Pouncer more than the Duelist, and that will very likely be my swap for the HOU update. Just makes things easy.
Thanks again for the write up! Amazed you found 20 to talk about.
I really want to run the Scarab God, but I can't see cutting Tezz2.0 because I do support the artifact deck. It's almost tempting me to rejigger my cube to run 4 guild cards.
Thanks again for the write up! Amazed you found 20 to talk about.
I really want to run the Scarab God, but I can't see cutting Tezz2.0 because I do support the artifact deck. It's almost tempting me to rejigger my cube to run 4 guild cards.
Cheers,
rant
Thanks!
Scarab God is good, but I don't think I'd reconfigure the cube just to get it in there.
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 commenting! Glad you enjoyed the article.
I think Izzet is too deep for The Locust God, and I don't think it needs more 6cc creatures in that color combination at all. And the rules change for Fire // Ice didn't change its playability in cube at all, and I think it's a FAR better card than the God. Not sure if the Locust God cracks my top 10 for Izzet. I don't think it does.
And I don't think that Demon is any good. Maybe in commander? But not in this format.
Good job at reviewing this terrible collection! A bunch of 720 includes, a few 540 tests and no clear 360 staple.
Every set I look forward to read your review!
On the cards, I'll ad Abrade for sure, ramunap excavator is on the maybeboard, and I am considering to swap dragonlord silumgar for The scarab god. 5/5 for 5cc is an unusual amount of stats with a recurring card with a passive ability and an army in a can ability (over the turns). Silumgar is good but ultimately I also run a lot of control magic effects (control magic itself, treachery, sower of temptation, etc).
I also share with you the liking of new Bolas over the OG one. I will wait for its price to lower, and snag a foil copy when possible!
@JinxedIdol: Thanks! Ya, only a couple includes for smaller cubes this time around.
@Khrone: Glad you liked it, and happy you concur with the findings.
@preppypoof: I actually like Abrade more in unpowered lists than a lot of alternative artifact destruction spells, since when you don't have a premium target for it, the card doesn't go to waste. I do like the spell more than the Lightning Strike variants, if more for variety than anything else.
Sweet review, as always. I'll bet you're a completionist, but next time there's a set this bad, you could just do a top 9 or top 13 or whatever.
That said, this set gives me a big splashy planeswalker for those who love playing those, Abrade to diversify the 2cmc red spells, and most importantly, Ramunap Excavator, for the Excavator / Oracle / Strip Mine wombo combo.*
* Among many, many other things.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Sweet review, as always. I'll bet you're a completionist, but next time there's a set this bad, you could just do a top 9 or top 13 or whatever.
That said, this set gives me a big splashy planeswalker for those who love playing those, Abrade to diversify the 2cmc red spells, and most importantly, Ramunap Excavator, for the Excavator / Oracle / Strip Mine wombo combo.*
* Among many, many other things.
I have to stick to the top 20 format. I broke away from it once, and I really prefer to just keep it simple and uniform.
And yes, even though we're only getting a few cards, the ones we're getting look to be pretty good at least.
Thanks for commenting, glad you liked the article!
I definitely agree with you that the Earthshaker Khenra is better than Valley Dasher ...though I think both of them are a far cry from being playable in a powered 360 list. Just my $0.02.
Great write-up, thanks muchly for all the hard work.
Also I somehow managed to miss that the scarab God can target any graveyard. I had assumed it was only your own, I was going to run it before and definitely am now.
Ya, Scarab God's ability to target the opponent's 'yard will be important for him, since he'll often go into decks with low-ish creature counts. And it'll give him chances to grab good off-color targets, like Eternal Witnesses and Flametongue Kavus!
Well sure. But dedicated control isn't what aggro decks need to worry about. I'd be more upset with the fact that a single soldier token can kill off the Kherna after it's only attacked once, or that a single beast token can stonewall your entire board. Those are things that will be giving red's 2-drops problems, and Kherna isn't really an answer to either.
I defiantly think Sifter Wurm should have a top 20 spot. Maybe even a top 10 spot. If I still managed a large cube I would add Sifter before your top 9+.
I just don't agree. I think Pelakka Wurm does its job but better, and even if my cube was 720, I don't know if I'd even have a place for Pelakka Wurm anymore. It could've taken a spot in the high teens to discuss implications for C/Ubes, but there are plenty of other articles that focus on Pauper/Peasant stuff that I didn't bother.
I just don't agree. I think Pelakka Wurm does its job but better, and even if my cube was 720, I don't know if I'd even have a place for Pelakka Wurm anymore. It could've taken a spot in the high teens to discuss implications for C/Ubes, but there are plenty of other articles that focus on Pauper/Peasant stuff that I didn't bother.
It's true that this is a worse Pelakka. But Pelakka is personally one of my favourite ramp/reanimator bullets because of the lifegain. I can't count the number of times it have saved me with a little lifegain with ramp/reanimator vs aggro.
So it's probably due to factors such as these, plus that I support ramp a bit more in my green section than in your cube.
My point only was that I defiantly wouldn't play any of your 9+ cards even in a 720 cube. I would consider the Wurm, and probably include is as a Pelakka nr 2.
This is my 22nd installment of the "top 20" set preview articles! Just like the previous reviews, it will be in a spoiled top X countdown format, with each section having an image, a brief summary/description, and my verdict on what cubes I think it could potentially see some play in. I got a lot of positive feedback on the format from the last few articles, so I’m going to keep the “what I like” and “what I don’t like” sections.
Keep in mind (just like the others) that this is a set preview. Similar to draft predictions in professional sports, this list is an educated guess at best. Some cards I value highly in here may turn out to not last long in the cube. Other cards that are lower down on the list (or even missed entirely!) could (well, very likely may) turn out to be great cards. Even Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round! Again, this is not intended to be gospel, set in stone or written as a review for posterity. This is simply written to be an enjoyable guess at cards I like for cubes, and hopefully it'll allow some cube managers to evaluate cards they may have otherwise overlooked and/or put some cards in perspective that may've been overhyped. Nothing more.
Hour of Devastation had the exact opposite problem as Amonkhet when it came to writing a top 20 article. Amonkhet was full of solid playable cube cards worthy of discussion, and it was really hard to prune down to 20. Hour of Devastation has very few good cards for this format, and I was really stretching to find cards to add to the list. I was able to find 20 I thought were interesting enough to merit discussion, and I’ll go over them with you here.
Without further ado, I can start the countdown!
Hour of Devastation
A 5cc red sweeper.
What I Like: Hitting both creatures and planeswalkers provides a unique answer to often problematic boards. And 5 damage is a threshold that will kill a good majority of all its potential targets.
What I Don't Like: Sweepers like this can be hard to make asymmetrical, particularly in red where it kills pretty much every creature and planeswalker that control decks might elect to include in their final 40. Additionally, 5cc sweepers have historically proven to be too slow in this format, even in decks that are backed up by cheap removal spells. In matchups against midrange decks where you might be able to afford to wait an extra turn to sweep the board away, your deck is already favored. But against aggressive decks that are really applying early pressure, 5 mana is just too slow to wipe the board. Cards like Rolling Earthquake can provide a similar effect, but they have huge advantages over Hour of Devastation, namely costing only a single red mana, being able to scale so they can be cast earlier in the game if your under pressure, controlling the damage cap to leave your X/5 creatures and ‘walkers alive, and being able to kill an opposing planeswalker without damaging your own.
Verdict: If you play a lot of red control decks that don’t run almost exclusive collateral damage targets in them, Hour of Devastation can be a powerful card in a midrange dominated meta. And even then, it’s going to be hard to find room outside of particularly large lists.
Dreamstealer
A Hypnotic Specter Variant.
What I Like: Dreamstealer can be a reasonable substitute for Hypnotic Specter in lists that are trying to prune down on their 1BB cost 3-drops. While it loses the 2nd power and the random discard, it has the ceiling of hitting more cards when you increase its power via another effect, and it has built-in card advantage value against removal thanks to the Eternalize. Speaking of which, this creature is pretty monstrous after it’s returned from the grave; decimating the opponent’s hand with a single connection and being a 4/4 menace is nothing to scoff at.
What I Don't Like: Black’s 3cc creatures are quite competitive now, and it can be hard to find room for generic “solid role-players” when a lot of the options help support specific strategies.
Verdict: I think Dreamstealer has a chance to be a solid filler 3-drop for larger cubes, especially ones keeping an eye on their mana demand and looking for easier to cast creatures in the middle of the curve. I might be able to find room to test this if my cube was in the 720+ range.
Earthshaker Khenra
A cheap Goblin Heelcutter variant.
What I Like: Not that long ago, 1R for a 2/1 haste might’ve been enough to make it into cubes on its own. Add in some blocking disruption and a free late-game recursive body and you’d have yourself an easy inclusion. It’s nice to have a creature that can be reasonably effective on T2, in addition to sneaking in a 6cc threat into an aggro deck without dedicating a slot in your final 40 to it.
What I Don't Like: The blocking disruption is very limited. If there’s a 3/3 creature stonewalling your Jackal Pups, this card can’t help you push damage through. And while the Eternalize is essentially just an added bonus, 6 mana is a lot of mana to ask of a red control deck.
Verdict: I think this Earthshaker dude is a fine filler 2cc red creature for larger cubes, but the lack of effective blocking disruption and relatively anemic body once the haste wears off will prevent it from doing any reasonable lifting in a smaller cube. Might be worth testing out over other fringe options in 720+ card cubes.
Riddleform
A cheap spells matters support card.
What I Like: In Delver-style spells matters beatdown decks, a 3/3 flying attacker that’s immune to sorcery-speed creature removal is pretty interesting. As an enchantment, it triggers your other prowess creatures, and the repeatable scry effect can filter you into other cheap spells that can keep it animated.
What I Don't Like: Despite being a cost-effective beater for a spells matters tempo shell, it’s too fair and inconsistent of a card for other beatdown strategies, and traditional control shells play their spells too reactively to make effective use of its body. And the cost on the scry trigger is pretty high to be used as a utility enchantment.
Verdict: Larger cubes supporting a dedicated spells matters tempo deck might want to give this card a trial run. In the right deck, it can be a reliable evasive beater that dodges a lot of removal. If I was playing a 720+ card cube and had a prowess shell supported, I’d be giving Riddleform a chance to prove itself.
Firebrand Archer
A cheap spells matters support card.
What I Like: Similar to Riddleform, Firebrand Archer can be a good support card for spell-heavy tempo shells. There’s only so many Swiftspears and Delvers that the shell can include, and this can help you increase your threat density with a creature that has a reasonable body for the cost and can provide some free reach as the game goes on. It’s a more cost-effective beater than a card like Guttersnipe, and triggering off of all your noncreature spells can widen the range of decks it might be playable in.
What I Don't Like: One extra damage isn’t a ton, and due to its lack of combat abilities, most of your burn that might trigger his ability will have to be aimed at the opponent’s board to free up your attacks. Also, similar to most of your spells matters support cards, it can be a relatively poor topdeck since it needs to resolve as early as possible to leverage its advantage.
Verdict: Larger cubes supporting a dedicated spells matters tempo deck might want to give this card a chance. In the right deck, it can provide a consistent form of reach and may actually demand an answer to keep it under control. If I was playing a 720+ card cube and had a prowess shell supported, I’d be adding Firebrand Archer to the ranks alongside Snappys and Pyromancers for a little extra depth at that role.
Kefnet’s Last Word
A unique Control Magic variant.
What I Like: This gives you a Control Magic effect that can’t be disenchanted, and can also work with your instants/sorceries matters kinds of cards, like Snapcaster and the like. In addition to being able to steal artifacts and enchantments; card types that once resolved can cause problems for heavy-blue decks.
What I Don't Like: While the Exhaustion drawback on this spell doesn’t hurt as bad as some of the others (thanks to the huge tempo swing that the effect provides) it is important to keep in mind how severe the drawback can be when things go wrong. If the opponent does have a cost-effective answer to the board right after this spell is cast, the tempo impact it has on the subsequent turn can be game ending. I tested this card out of excitement over the potential spell interactions, but the tempo setback in response to bounce or removal (especially if you’re relying on the stolen creature to protect you) was too much.
Verdict: This is a unique enough effect that players with larger cubes might be able to find time to give this card proper testing. But the competition in the blue spell slot for small and medium sized cubes is too steep for this spell anyways.
Mirage Mirror
A unique permanent copying effect.
What I Like: This is largely a combo card. If your cube supports a Dark Depths combo or a Time Vault combo, this card is another piece on the puzzle that can help those strategies work. Once it finds its way into decks for combo shenanigans, it can also be used at face value to copy powerful permanents on the cheap and do cool things.
What I Don't Like: It’s a little too cost ineffective to be used for only its intended use, so unless the card provides some combo potential for your list, it’s probably not going to be worth it.
Verdict: Pretty simple. If your cubes support combo engines this can contribute to, include it. Otherwise, you can pass on it pretty easily.
Bontu’s Last Reckoning
A cheap and unique wrath effect.
What I Like: There aren’t any cards that can simply destroy all creatures regardless of life totals and toughness for 3 mana. Now, it’ll ultimately cost more mana than that, but the ability to cast the card to escape a troublesome situation early is pretty important. And unlike the other final god spells, since this kills everything on the board, it’ll give you some breathing room to survive the next turn’s tempo setback. I gave this card some pretty extensive testing after it was spoiled because it looked really interesting to me. The most important thing this card did over other sweepers was give me the ability to provide follow-up plays on the same turn before passing. With 6 mana, for example, I could resolve this to kill everything and resolve an Ophiomancer in the same turn, which both set up my defenses to mitigate the drawback or allow me to attack on the very next turn. No other sweeper in the cube would allow me to orchestrate that kind of play, and it occurred relatively often.
What I Don't Like: Ultimately the tempo drawback was just a little bit too much. It wasn’t as bad as most doomsday criers were speculating, but it was definitely something that could cause problems for you if you weren’t careful.
Verdict: This card was about as good as I expected it to be. It was a powerful and unique effect that sometimes felt like it was the only out that would’ve worked in a given situation, and other times felt like I would’ve been willing to exchange it for any other sweeper available. It’s tough to handle those kinds of swings, and ultimately it just didn’t work for the kinds of players in my group because of that. I would be willing to consider this as low as maybe 630 cards or so, and I’d be playing it in a 720+ card cube for sure.
Champion of Wits
A solid blue card filtering creature.
What I Like: The fact that this effect is strapped to a body keeps it from being card disadvantage, which is pretty neat. I like having Careful Study kinds of effects floating around, and when you can filter without the cost of a card, it’s pretty beneficial. And that’s just in its first form. The Eternalize mode on the card provides quite a bit of card advantage, considering you get a 4-power body and you essentially draw 2 cards, giving you +3 card advantage off the “flashback” mode alone. It’s nice to have a card that’s both good at filling the graveyard AND provides value from the graveyard itself.
What I Don't Like: The only real knocks on the card are the costs. The effect is absolutely worth 3 mana, but the timing is unfortunate since most decks trying to abuse the graveyard are hoping to be using the graveyard on T3 at the latest, and this binds up your resources on that turn. Additionally, despite the Eternalize component being really powerful, Wizards accounted for that in the design, and costed it appropriately. 7 mana is about what that effect should cost, but it’s certainly very expensive.
Verdict: Blue is a hard section to find cuts in, but in cubes 720 or bigger supporting graveyard strategies in blue, you might want to give Champion a change to prove its worth. Depending on the speed of your graveyard strategies, it might be playable in some 630 sized cubes too.
Bloodwater Entity
A good Izzet spells matters card.
What I Like: There’s a lot to like about this creature. The evasion and the prowess can make it a reasonable beater for spells matters tempo decks, and the spell recursion can be really powerful with the right cards to Reclaim. Powered cubes in particular can snag cards like Walk and Recall which will make the Entity pretty absurd. I like the interaction it has with itself; setting up another draw that will trigger itself and all your other prowess stuff.
What I Don't Like: In order to really put it over the top, I think it either needed flash, haste or needed to put the returned spell into your hand instead of to the top of your deck. It’s just a little slow and completely telegraphs all the things it can do for you.
Verdict: Izzet sections aren’t so filled with powerhouse cards that Entity can’t see play as a roleplayer in some lists. Powered cubes supporting Delver shells might be able to find room for Entity as maybe the #6 or so Izzet cards, with unpowered cubes right behind them. I might test this out in the 630-720 range due to that.
Burning-Fist Minotaur
A discard outlet/combat beast.
What I Like: It’s nice that red can get some more incidental discard outlets in the color, and it can serve as a backup card in that role in a pinch. The primary use for the Minotaur is just dominating combat. It can hit hard if you have extra cards to pitch to it, but similar to Mongrel, it’s the threat of activation that’s going to cause the most problems for your opponent. Because of the first strike, the opponent can’t really afford to attack into or block Minotaur with anything smaller than a 5/5. It can be a pretty dominating presence on the battlefield, for a relatively low cost.
What I Don't Like: Despite its value as a beater, it’s not a particularly good discard outlet. Graveyard decks want their discard outlets to pitch cards on the cheap (preferably free) and the fact that this costs mana to activate does several things to it. First, it makes it susceptible to removal before it has a chance to bin your important graveyard card (unless you wait until you have 4+ mana to cast it). Second, it interferes with your ability to cast the graveyard interaction spell and use the Minotaur’s ability in the same turn, often delaying your reanimation effect by a turn (greatly reducing its effectiveness).
Verdict: Ultimately, a red Wild Mongrel this is not. It’s still a solid beatdown creature, and it can play the roll of filler/backup discard outlet until we get a better one, but its lack of prowess as a discard outlet will keep it from shining in most smaller cubes. If the discard cost no mana but only provided +1/+0, this would’ve been an instant staple for even the smallest of cubes. But the mana cost in the activated ability is a big deal. I might play this at 630 or 720, myself, just as a stopgap until something better comes along.
Ifnir Deadlands
Another playable black utility land option!
What I Like: This is far and away my favorite of the new land cycle, because the activated ability is often worth a full card. There are a ton of X/2 creatures in the cube, and a lot of them are worthy of aiming a removal spell at. The nice part about the Deadlands is that it just replaces a Swamp during deckbuilding, giving you a nice removal option at a really low opportunity cost. Tapping for colorless mana can be relevant for some decks, and it can still provide black mana without entering the battlefield tapped! It also has fun interactions with Crucible and Loam effects, which is nice to have.
What I Don't Like: The ability effectively costs you 5 mana and a land in order to kill something, which isn’t a small price. And being limited to activating at sorcery speed stops this from being a threat that can impact combat math at a moment’s notice. Ultimately my only two gripes about the card.
Verdict: This card is probably even better than it looks, and there’s a good chance that it might get a trial run in my cube for a while. But I would give this extensive testing at 630 and probably snap-include it at 720+.
Nimble Obstructionist
A maindeckable cubeworthy Stifle effect!
What I Like: This card has quite a bit of flexibility. It can go on the beatdown plan; being splashable a 3/1 flying creature with flash for 3 mana, or it can be used to disrupt the opponent’s gameplan by cancelling their activated abilities. It’s uncounterable in Stifle mode, and it draws you a card too. Well worth the 3 mana in matchups where the opponent has a lot of targets for the effect.
What I Don't Like: Both of its modes are solid, but it’s missing the broken option of being both. I would’ve gladly sacrificed the cycling part of the effect to make it an enters the battlefield trigger instead. The scenarios of being able to Stifle a fetchland activation while adding 3 evasive power to the board is just so exciting, and ultimately not what you get here.
Verdict: Vendillion Clique this is not. Largely because you choose between the body and the disruption instead of getting both. I tested it for a while after it was spoiled, and it was a 3/1 flying flash a lot of the time. Too much of the time for my tastes. When I cast it without Stifling something, it felt like a waste of a Stifle effect, and when I stifled an ability with it, I felt like I was throwing a body away. I just couldn’t find a permanent slot for it at 540, but it would very likely be my next 3cc creature to include in blue, making it a 630+ creature for me.
Supreme Will
A hybrid Mana Leak/Impulse.
What I Like: It’s nice to be able to choose between Mana Leaking a spell and casting an Impulse; whatever the current gamestate calls for. And for a 1-mana tax, you get both options in one card. Pass with 3 mana open, counter a spell if they play one or Impulse at the end of their turn. It’s a card that will slot in very naturally into most blue decks, and it will be an intuitive and easy card to use.
What I Don't Like: Both effects are decent, but neither is particularly powerful at 3 mana. The tax pays for the flexibility, but the card will never feel anything more than fair regardless of how you use it.
Verdict: This is my favorite 3cc blue counterspell not named Forbid. I would have room for it if my cube was 630 cards or bigger. Perhaps cubes not supporting the artifact.dec would have enough open slots in blue to play this at 540 or even 450.
Angel of Condemnation
A blink support creature.
What I Like: Using Eldrazi Displacer as a baseline, Angel gains flying, vigilance, a Journey to Nowhere activated ability and exchanges colorless costs to white costs …all for one extra white mana. Angel can dominate boards congested with cheap creatures, as a 3/3 vigilant flyer can cause problems for aggressive-sized bodies. Angel helps to support blink shells; flickering creatures in and out of play that provide enters the battlefield triggers for you as they do so.
What I Don't Like: Limiting the ability to once per turn really lowered the card’s average performance for me in comparison to Displacer, and the extra mana matters a lot once you’re spending 4+ mana on the card. It reminded me a little bit of Olivia Voldaren; it could take over a game if it was left unchecked, but ultimately the combination of being vulnerable to removal and being really mana intensive edged her out. My testing experience with the Angel was similar. The additional mana needed to be spent really compounds the issue of it being vulnerable to removal. Enough so that it won’t make it into my final set update.
Verdict: The best selling point for the Angel is the lack of premium competition in the 4cc white creature slot. There’s a ton of great spells, but only a few good creatures to compete with. Because of that, I could see Angel making it into quite a few cube lists. My ultimate verdict is probably a 630+ sized cube, but I could see it making the cut in smaller lists if you heavily support the blink decks, or if you’re disappointed with the other commonly run 4cc white creatures.
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
A new monster Grixis planeswalker.
What I Like: Similar to the current Nicol Bolas, the new one is a lot of fun to use. Perhaps even moreso. The {+2} ability is a blast to use; cascading off the top of the opponent’s library and casting free spells is unique, powerful and creates some amazing cube stories. The {+1} ability has been surprisingly effective; an exile Mind Rot can really cripple the opponent’s hand, especially if you can catch them with just 2 or 3 cards left. But the crazy ability is the {-4} one …7 damage is a lot, and you’d be surprised how often the random 7-mana Fireball to the face can just kill the opponent. Or alternating between one of the plus abilities and a pair of the minus abilities can 14 the opponent over a series of a few turns and just win the game for you. And the ultimate is of course a powerful effect. The biggest difference between this Bolas and the original one is the cost. This Bolas resolves with more loyalty, but it also costs less mana and has less color demand. Both of those aspects are important. In a super-ramp deck with all the mana in the world, it’s not a huge difference. But for a random Grixis control deck, the difference between 7 and 8 is a lot, often 2+ turns faster. Not only that, but the more splashable mana demand opens up homes for the new Bolas where the old one would’ve been unplayable. Original Bolas was splashable as a red or blue splash, but the double black cost prevented it from being playable in an Izzet control deck splashing like 3 sources of black. The new one can fit into those slots.
What I Don't Like: It’s ultimately still a 7+ mana card that’s 3 colors, and it faces similar deck construction obstacles because of that. Not every deck wants a card that costs more than 6 mana that’s hard to cheat into play and can’t be reanimated.
Verdict: I think this is better than the original Nicol Bolas, and by a pretty significant margin too. After seeing it in action, it just wins games on its own far better than the original one could, and it’s more fun. And ultimately, that’s what cards like Nicol Bolas are about. They’re 7+cc 3-color planeswalkers. They’re not included to be the best or most powerful cards. They’re included because they’re fun and big and splashy, and the new Bolas beats the original Bolas at his own game. Cascading into free spells off the opponent’s library? 7 damage Fireballs being thrown around? It’s just a fun card! And with the cost reductions factored in, it can see play in more decks and resolves faster than the OG Bolas, and with more loyalty. At whatever cube size you decide to dedicate a slot to a Grixis card, that’s the size that Nicol Bolas should go in at. For me, that size is 540.
Adorned Pouncer
A better Fencing Ace variant.
What I Like: Fencing Ace isn’t the most popular cube card, but there are playgroups that have success with it. Pouncer is just a much better version of the same card. Whenever a 2-power 2-drop gets printed that has the potential to generate card advantage over the course of a typical game gets printed, it needs to be evaluated closely to see if it’s good enough. And I think Pouncer gets there. It has interactions with equipment, anthems and battle cry effects even in its first form; it can attack for 8 with a Grafted Wargear on curve, or use OG Elspeth’s ability to jump over the opponent’s defenders for 8 damage. But the real selling point is the Eternalize. It provides you some wrath protection, because post sweeper you can spend 5 mana to give yourself a token creature that can bash for 8 all by itself. It’s nice to have that built-in value attached to a respectable baseline creature.
What I Don't Like: Since the Eternalize requires the card to be in the graveyard, Pouncer can be susceptible to exile-based removal. And the Eternalize token is vulnerable to bounce effects.
Verdict: I think this creature is a pretty easy include in 540 card cubes, and may be playable in some 450 card cubes depending on how happy you are with your current white 2-drop suite.
The Scarab God
A 5cc finisher.
What I Like: The Scarab God reminds me a bit of a more resilient Meloku the Clouded Mirror. In that, I feel that if I can untap with it in play, I’m going to be in a good position to win the game. The Scarab God has good stats, it’s a hard-to-kill 5/5 creature for 5 mana, and it makes 4/4 creatures for 4 mana. Most of the creatures you can target with its ability are going to get a sizable benefit from the power/toughness modification, and there are a ton of utility and tempo creatures in both blue and black that get really good when you can return them as 4/4s. All the Vensers, Nekrataals, Shriekmaws, Mulldrifters and Simulacrums you can bring back into play give you all their triggers another time, and they become 4/4 versions of their former selves. After a single activation you’ll have 9 power worth of guys out, you’ll probably benefit from additional creature abilities, and then Scarab God’s passive abilities can start to go to work. Since all the creatures it creates are zombies, it has synergy with itself. And with even one eternalized critter on the board, Scarab God starts to provide some reach that can win irregardless of the red zone, and you can start stacking your library with scry triggers. In my (albeit limited) testing with it so far, the passive ability has proved to be quite useful when the ground is gummed up with blockers and tokens for the main creatures, but the reach matters and the scry stacks up value rather quickly. Scarab God is hard to kill, and with just a couple of dead creatures between the two graveyards (it can target the opponent’s ‘yard too) it represents the threat for 13+ power, multiple triggered abilities, passive repeatable effects and a lot of resiliency.
What I Don't Like: The only thing The Scarab God is really vulnerable against is exile-based removal. There are probably less than 10 real ways to deal with the Scarab God before it can generate value (unless you have 9+ mana available, in which case it can always generate value for you) and almost all of them are white.
Verdict: The best part about The Scarab God (as our very own Salmo pointed out) is the lack of competition in its particular role. There are a lot of good creatures in the 6+cc slot for both black and blue, but as far as 5cc creatures go, there aren’t any that can safely resolve on T5 that aren’t utility creatures. Tapout Dimir control decks don’t have a go-to 5cc creature that can start dominating the game, and The Scarab God fits in perfectly for this color combination. I think it has a good chance of being the 4th or 5th best Dimir card for the cube format, and I think it should see a reasonable amount of play in cubes 450-540 and bigger.
Abrade
A solid maindeckable Shatter effect.
What I Like: Most dedicated artifact removal in the cube tends to either be expensive (attached to a body) or narrow (do nothing but destroy artifacts). I’ve been waiting for a good modal artifact removal spell in red, and Abrade really fits the bill. A user on reddit (handle mykenae) made a comparison that I really liked. They said that Abrade was essentially red’s Disenchant, exchanging the Erase mode with a “deal 3 damage to target creature” mode. When put into that context, Abrade looks to be a really fantastic utility spell.
What I Don't Like: Neither mode is going to be particularly impressive. A 2-mana Shatter effect is expensive by today’s standards, and dealing 3 damage to a creature isn’t exactly breaking the mold at 2-mana.
Verdict: This spell is affordable, flexible and it’s at instant speed. That’s how I like my utility cards, and I’m going to be pretty happy to play Abrade for the foreseeable future. I would include this in most 450 cubes, perhaps even smaller if you have a particular need for artifact removal.
Ramunap Excavator
Magus of the Crucible!
What I Like: I’ve been wanting this creature (or something like it) for as long as I’ve been cubing. It helps add saturation to the Crucible/Loam strategies (recurring Strip Mines and Wastelands and fetches for value) in addition to helping shape a few archetypes. It’s great in Stax decks with Braids and Smokestack, it can be good in Armageddon decks as a way to make the land destruction asymmetrical, it can be used with Gargadon as a way to ramp for 1 once you’re out of land drops, it can replay lands that have been discarded or sacrificed in other ways …there’s just a lot of things you can do with Crucible effects. Additionally, since Excavator is also a respectable defensive body, it might be able to go into decks that may not be able to run Crucible (because there aren’t enough dedicated targets) but still randomly provide the ability to return dead manlands (Hissing Quagmire anybody?) and some other utility functions that might not be worth a card on their own.
What I Don't Like: In decks specifically trying to abuse Crucible effects (Strip Mine combo, etc) the fact that the Excavator can be killed by creature removal makes that combo more fragile. But otherwise, no complaints.
Verdict: I always want more support for Crucible/Loam strategies, and the opportunity cost for playing Excavator is much lower since it’s at least a dude on its own if nothing else. Depending on your cube configuration, Excavator can definitely be playable even in 360 card cubes. But once the cube gets above 405 cards in size, all 10 manlands make an appearance and some of the more fringe fetches appear …this card should find a home for sure.
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the article, and please feel free to comment below!
Cheers, and happy cubing.
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Interested to see your opinion of the The Scarab God. Would you play it over Dragonlord Silumgar?
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Thanks! I don't know if it will on a permanent basis, but I'm going to be making that swap for extended testing purposes.
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One question I have: do you like Pouncer more than Trueheart Duelist? I haven't gotten a chance to test HOU and they are both very similar / different at the same time.
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Thanks!
I do like the Pouncer more than the Duelist, and that will very likely be my swap for the HOU update. Just makes things easy.
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You're most welcome. And ya, it was a bit of a stretch. o.0
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I really want to run the Scarab God, but I can't see cutting Tezz2.0 because I do support the artifact deck. It's almost tempting me to rejigger my cube to run 4 guild cards.
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Thanks!
Scarab God is good, but I don't think I'd reconfigure the cube just to get it in there.
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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
I think Izzet is too deep for The Locust God, and I don't think it needs more 6cc creatures in that color combination at all. And the rules change for Fire // Ice didn't change its playability in cube at all, and I think it's a FAR better card than the God. Not sure if the Locust God cracks my top 10 for Izzet. I don't think it does.
And I don't think that Demon is any good. Maybe in commander? But not in this format.
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While the power level of the set is low, I am alreay content with Magus of the Crucible, which is 100% in.
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Every set I look forward to read your review!
On the cards, I'll ad Abrade for sure, ramunap excavator is on the maybeboard, and I am considering to swap dragonlord silumgar for The scarab god. 5/5 for 5cc is an unusual amount of stats with a recurring card with a passive ability and an army in a can ability (over the turns). Silumgar is good but ultimately I also run a lot of control magic effects (control magic itself, treachery, sower of temptation, etc).
I also share with you the liking of new Bolas over the OG one. I will wait for its price to lower, and snag a foil copy when possible!
How do you feel about Abade in lists that don't run Signets or power? I'm having trouble cutting a card like Lightning Strike for it.
@Khrone: Glad you liked it, and happy you concur with the findings.
@preppypoof: I actually like Abrade more in unpowered lists than a lot of alternative artifact destruction spells, since when you don't have a premium target for it, the card doesn't go to waste. I do like the spell more than the Lightning Strike variants, if more for variety than anything else.
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That said, this set gives me a big splashy planeswalker for those who love playing those, Abrade to diversify the 2cmc red spells, and most importantly, Ramunap Excavator, for the Excavator / Oracle / Strip Mine wombo combo.*
* Among many, many other things.
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Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
I have to stick to the top 20 format. I broke away from it once, and I really prefer to just keep it simple and uniform.
And yes, even though we're only getting a few cards, the ones we're getting look to be pretty good at least.
Ya, I really liked their analogy, and wanted to share it here.
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I definitely agree with you that the Earthshaker Khenra is better than Valley Dasher ...though I think both of them are a far cry from being playable in a powered 360 list. Just my $0.02.
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Also I somehow managed to miss that the scarab God can target any graveyard. I had assumed it was only your own, I was going to run it before and definitely am now.
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Ya, Scarab God's ability to target the opponent's 'yard will be important for him, since he'll often go into decks with low-ish creature counts. And it'll give him chances to grab good off-color targets, like Eternal Witnesses and Flametongue Kavus!
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It's true that this is a worse Pelakka. But Pelakka is personally one of my favourite ramp/reanimator bullets because of the lifegain. I can't count the number of times it have saved me with a little lifegain with ramp/reanimator vs aggro.
So it's probably due to factors such as these, plus that I support ramp a bit more in my green section than in your cube.
My point only was that I defiantly wouldn't play any of your 9+ cards even in a 720 cube. I would consider the Wurm, and probably include is as a Pelakka nr 2.
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