This is my 25th (how perfectly fitting!) 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.
I want to preface this article by saying that Dominaria is hands-down my favorite Magic set in recent memory. I love the return to familiar mechanics, places and characters. But even more than that, I love the return to the classic fantasy world. The art feels classically Magical in nature. The high fantasy themes, the heroes and the knights and the monsters and the wizards …it feels like a genuine return to the best things about Magic that made me fall in love with the game over 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the set isn’t fantastic for smaller cubes, so this won’t be the format for me to eternalize the new cards in all their glory, but it didn’t stop me from fawning over the card image gallery when it dropped. There are some gems in here for our format though, and very likely some diamonds in the rough that are worth exploring.
What I Like: Red doesn’t have a lot of good options for 7+cc superfatties, and Verix has the flexibility of either being both a 7cc mono-red Broodmate and having a failsafe mode as a 4/4 flying creature for 4 mana if you just need something for the middle of the curve. Neither mode is spectacular, but larger cubes that are looking for a flexible creature that can fill multiple spots in the curve might find something fun and flexible in Verix.
What I Don't Like: In the current cube era, neither mode is powerful enough to be spectacular. It’s not good enough to compete as a 4-drop, and the appealing part of Broodmate mode is the lack of competition at the 7+ mana slot.
Verdict: Large cubes where managers like to dedicate at least one 7+cmc slot to a “superfatty” in each color might find some value from Verix. It’s too inefficient in either of its modes to compete on their own, but the fact that it can be both a passable 4-drop and a reasonable 7-drop adds value in its flexibility.
What I Like: Getting a Telekinesis, a Take Into Custody and an Undo for 3U is a pretty good deal. It will help you press a board advantage, prevents the opponent from following up with a stabilizing blocker, and ends with a powerful tempo play. There will be board states where Time of Ice will be able to completely lock things up for you. And the art on the card is absolutely incredible.
What I Don't Like: The 4cc spell slot is stacked with amazing cards, and finding room for a relatively narrow (albeit powerful) tempo-exclusive card will prove difficult.
Verdict: If you manage a larger cube and have a higher-end spell slot open for tempo support, you should try out Time of Ice in that slot and see how it performs. I think it’s a card that will play out in practice to be far more impactful than it appears on paper.
What I Like: As the always observant Usman pointed out in his article, Teferi’s template is akin to the recent 5cc Ob Nixilis and Jace planeswalkers. But the key to Teferi is the ability to untap the lands at the end of turn, allowing you to tap out for powerful permanents (including the Teferi himself) and leave mana up for permission and reactive spells on the opponent’s turn. This makes Teferi a planeswalker that can play well in traditional draw-go control decks, where most other ‘walkers are going to perform ideally in a tap-out style control deck. It makes him unique in that way. Additionally, he can deal with problematic permanents and has a very powerful ultimate ability. If you want to represent the Azorius guild with a planeswalker and don’t have a need for one of the more deck-specific options like Venser or Narset, Teferi is worth a look.
What I Don't Like: In this day and age, the guild slot competition is pretty intense. A few years ago, this card would’ve been a staple for this guild. But now, the options are vast and powerful, and it will probably limit the play this sees in cubes.
Verdict: Cubes that are big enough to have an open guild slot for him, and/or cubes with deep guild sections might want to give Teferi a shot to prove himself. I think he’s better than he looks, and he fits well into decks that are always looking for additional support.
A decent support card for deep Aristocrats shells.
What I Like: Do you remember when Breeding Pit took 5 turns and 12 mana to make 4 0/1 tokens …and didn’t come with a 6/6 flying trample stapled to it? Pepperidge Farm remembers. This looks like an (albeit slightly worse) Nissa, Voice of Zendikar type card, in that decks that are looking to max out on both of it’s primary effects can put it to good use. Decks that are in the market for 0/1 creatures to sacrifice AND are looking for sacrifice outlets can make pretty decent use of Rite. On its own it’s too slow and low-impact, but if the deck is engineered to use all three of it’s triggers to their maximum efficiency, Rite can be quite powerful.
What I Don't Like: Unlike the token-supporting Nissa, this sacrifice-supporting Rite doesn’t allow you to control the order/timing of its effects. Meaning that the deck will often have tokens/recursive creatures and need an immediate sacrifice outlet to take advantage of them, and with Rite, you’ll have to wait multiple turns to get it. And if the opponent can somehow control your stream of tokens and recursive bodies, the Demon can come in off “suspend” and not have any food.
Verdict: If you manage a bigger cube that’s all-in on the sacrifice/token/aristocrats style shells, this card might prove valuable to you. But as a generic “goodstuff” card, this will fall short.
What I Like: On defense against aggro or in matchups involving a lot of combat, Fungal Infection is a deceptively powerful little trick. You can kill two X/1 attackers on defense, a single X/2 attacker or use it outside of combat to kill a 1-toughness value creature and leave yourself a token for your troubles. Decks that can make the token worth more than just its 1/1 body (via Anthems or Skullclamp or whatever) might value this spell higher than another -X/-X effect for that reason alone.
What I Don't Like: Even in comparison to Disfigure (a card that doesn’t see a ton of cube play anymore) there are several situations where the Infection falls short. It can’t simply kill an X/2 creature outside of combat. Even in combat, I can’t use this to save my 2/2 creature against a 3/3 attacker, since the opponent can order blockers appropriately. So as the creature size increases or combat is less relevant, Infection loses value in comparison to existing options.
Verdict: In a larger cube that’s both aggro heavy and combat-oriented, Fungal Infection might be really strong. Worth a look if your cube meets those descriptions.
What I Like: One of the ways to make sweepers effective in a creature-centric cube format is to make them asymmetrical. Scriptures has a built-in way to break the symmetry. First, it only kills non-artifact creatures, so a deck that prioritizes taking those kinds of threats will have a natural advantage there. Second, the ETB trigger on Scriptures will not only make a creature bigger, but will turn it into an artifact creature to survive the sweeper effect. It also happens to come with a built-in mechanism for clearing the opponent’s graveyard, which can be powerful with cards like Exhume and Living Death, and can also randomly hose certain decks looking to utilize their graveyard as a resource.
What I Don't Like: One of the most important aspects of sweeper effects is being able to control the timing window in which they occur. And unfortunately with Scriptures, the effect is on “delay” which not only makes it a worse topdeck, but may open yourself up to taking another turn of big damage before it impacts the board. Not to mention that the opponent may randomly have their own artifact creatures out, which will survive your effect.
Verdict: There will be windows where Scriptures will be fantastic. And there will ultimately be situations where it’s dead and/or slow and unimpactful. I’m not looking for spells with that kind of variance in my cube, but larger cubes with an aggressive artifact beatdown theme might be able to take just enough advantage from Scriptures’ upside to make it worthwhile.
A nice hoser effect with a built-in late-game engine.
What I Like: There are bound to be decks at the table that get hosed by Shalai’s protection effect. And when those matchups arise, you will feel “pre-boarded” against those players, and you’ll be able to turn off a ton of different effects. And the +1/+1 counter effect is slow and grindy, but it’ll be hugely impactful in some situations and really adds a lot of value to the creature in those matchups where the primary ability isn’t as valuable.
What I Don't Like: In situations where the primary effect isn’t valuable, Shalai is quite fair. There will be a lot of situations where she doesn’t seem to do much, and 4cc slots aren’t freely open when deckbuilding very often. Additionally, the Township ability is so critical to it’s maindeckability that she will typically take up a Selesnya slot during drafting/deckbuilding, and that guild is hard to crack into.
Verdict: I like this Angel, and if my cube was big enough to have an open Selesnya slot #6 or #7 available (probably in the 720 range) I’d be happy to give her a chance to prove her worth. I like the GW token/anthem deck, and she can really shine there even in matchups where the hexproof ability isn’t critical.
What I Like: Green’s 4cc creature section is relatively shallow, and that opens up a need in larger cubes for above-average filler creatures. Enter Allosaurus. A 5/5 for 4 mana isn’t stellar these days, but is nice to have as an on-curve option if you just need a 4-drop and/or the opponent isn’t presenting good targets for you to fight.
What I Don't Like: This is a mediocre 4-drop and a solid 7-drop, but not an amazing card in either situation. It’s decent enough to make the final-40 as a 22nd or 23rd card if the flexibility is going to be valuable to the deck, but it’s not a card I’d pick from a pack unless I didn’t have any other better options to choose from.
Verdict: I think the options for the green 4cc creature section in 720+ sized cubes is still in a situation where Allosaurus could slot in and not feel out-of-place. But I ultimately think it’s too fair to breach lists that are smaller than that.
What I Like: This competes decently with Hellkite Overlord as a top end Jund card. Similarly to what we learned with the 7cc Nicol Bolas in comparison to the 8cc Nicol bolas, making a big spell both cheaper and easier to cast has value. Overlord is arguably better in decks that have no interest in casting it, but Darigaaz being cheaper does have its upsides there. Decks that might not play the Overlord because of its prohibitive mana cost might be able to attempt to cast Darigaaz, meaning that it might be useful for a wider range of decks. His recursion ability is painfully slow, but there can be grindy control matchups where the ability is still relevant. And as steve_man pointed out in this card’s SCD thread, the recursion ability’s interaction with Sneak Attack and Through the Breach is really cool, especially if powered ahead of the curve. Breaching this into play on T3 post mana-ramp or something will allow the recursion ability to trigger fast enough to be relevant.
What I Don't Like: With the Bolas comparison, the mana cost difference really mattered, because Bolas was almost exclusively being hardcast. Whereas in this case, Overlord is almost exclusively being reanimated, Natural Ordered or being snuck into play. Outside of the off-chance that Darigaaz is being hardcast, I’d rather have Overlord in play instead of Darigaaz 9 times out of 10. Not to mention that Darigaaz’s recursion ability isn’t a may …you have to exile him. So decks that are trying to reanimate creatures from the graveyard after they die may look at that effect as a drawback.
Verdict: If your cube is of a size where you have a dedicated Jund slot, and you play Jund ramp as often as you play Jund reanimator/Natural Order decks, Darigaaz is an attractive option. But I don’t see this replacing other commonly run Jund cards in every cube that has the room, and most smaller cubes don’t have room anyways. I don’t see this making the cut in too many cubes smaller than 630+ in size.
What I Like: Three things need to happen for this effect to be great. You need to have a target during the window when the extra land is live, you need to have an extra land in hand, and you need to have that combination of things fall into a circumstance where the extra land will also be relevant (where either you can use the extra mana immediately or you have an additional land you can play next turn so the free land actually “ramps” you). When that specific combination of things happens, this card puts the Broken in Broken Bond. Conveniently, even if the effect doesn’t prove relevant, it has a floor of a sorcery-speed Naturalize at the very worst, which isn’t terrible. Powered cubes have a plethora of early targets that can assist Broken Bond with giving you the ceiling side of its effect with more regularity.
What I Don't Like: If you either don’t have an early target, don’t have an extra land, or the extra land is irrelevant, this spell doesn’t do anything special, and it would’ve been better off as one of a hundred different cards instead. I think it will be very hard for unpowered cubes to reliably have targets early enough for it to be relevant. Plus, green is full of Naturalize and Shatter effects that are strapped to bodies, which works a lot better with green’s natural synergies and provides green some forms of card advantage.
Verdict: If your cube cube is 630+ in size and it’s powered with the full range of early artifact mana, Broken Bond is likely worth a spin. The ceiling is great, the floor isn’t unacceptably bad, and it’s cheap and versatile.
What I Like: 4 power and 2 bodies for 3 mana is a decent rate. It can be powerful with effects that can blink it, and it has other cool interactions like Sun Titan and similar effects. The surprising part of the value is actually from the pump trigger; smashing for 8 is a powerful thing to do with a 3cc card, especially when the baseline effect is relatively reasonable.
What I Don't Like: It’s just missing that one thing that would’ve put it over the top. A 2W cost. First Strike instead of Vigilance. 2/3 bodies instead of 2/2s (to take advantage of the Vigilance in a meaningful way). Hell, even lifelink. As is, the card is solid but unexciting, and it just needed that last push to put it over the top. It’s also a frustrating card to have the opponent deal with after only making one body. It gives them a nice on-curve Reclamation Sage target that will deny you the 2nd body and the pump trigger.
Verdict: I don’t think cubes that are smaller than 630 cards will have much success finding room for History, which is unfortunate because the art on both the spell and its matching tokens is amazing. In constructed were you can curve out with History and nothing but other Knights at every turn it’s going to be very good. But in the cube where the pump isn’t likely to benefit anything other than its own tokens with any regularity, it’s only okay at best.
What I Like: Menace is a good keyword on a 4/5 body in a format loaded with Lions and Pikers and Bears (oh my!). It not only forces double-blocks, but bad double-blocks a lot of the time. And this card is super fun. I mean, it has a 10-mana mode that puts 20 power worth of Menace bodies on the table, which is so awesome. It’s a card that appeals to me more based of flavor than expected performance. But in the rare Golgari super-ramp deck that’s trying to cast Griselbrands and Ulamogs, having a creature that can flex as a passable 4-drop and a game-ending ramp target is reasonably valuable. Additionally, Wildfire decks want the on-curve 5-toughness body AND they’re loaded with artifact ramp that may occasionally allow you to 20-ball the opponent.
What I Don't Like: I playtested this card pretty extensively in the hopes that it would be good enough. It was a 4/5 Menace for 4 mana damn near every time it was played. Which just wasn’t good enough. I was able to kick it once (and, as expected, it won the game) …but after I got my “achievement unlocked” moment, I evaluated the number of times it had resolved vs the number of times it was kicked and decided it was simply too Magical Christmas Land for my tastes.
Verdict: Super cool card, and a blast to play with. Black’s 4cc creatures aren’t saturated with many decent oversized beaters, and you might be able to shoehorn Josu Vess into the list and have it be relatively defensible (just on the coolness factor alone). But I can’t see this making it into cubes any smaller than 540-630 at the smallest, and even there it would largely be just because he’s really cool.
What I Like: In a deck loaded to the brim with artifacts, the draw effect is pretty consistent. And with enough cheap artifacts, attacking for lethal with the III-mode trigger will be a really fun moment. I like that it’s splashable and generates card advantage, in addition to providing a deck that traditionally is a little short on win conditions with another way to potentially steal wins. If you hit with both of the early modes, the card is great.
What I Don't Like: I tested this out as part of the artifact package, and while it was good in some builds, you really need a lot of artifacts for this to do enough. And I found the 5/5 creature mode to be less consistent than I wanted to …the opponent has time to prepare for it, and they can deal with the artifacts or give them a blocker or two and you’re back to square one. Plus, even with a huge saturation of artifacts, it hurts really bad when the I or II mode misses. Moreso than with Tezz 2.0, because his ability only cost you time instead of a card (and it still grows his loyalty), and you have more control over when it’s time to switch into 5/5 beatdown mode.
Verdict: This doesn’t crack the top tier of artifact.dec support cards, but fits into the tier-2 wave of them. If you’re supporting the artifact.dec in a cube that’s 540/630 cards or bigger, give this a spin though, because it can be very powerful when it works.
A good option for the tier-2 black 6cc creature slot.
What I Like: 6 mana for a 6/6 Flying Trampler that not only draws a card when it comes into play, but guarantees that the card you draw is more gas …that’s his floor. Don’t sleep on Belzenlok. His ceiling is absurd too; he repeats his draw trigger when he draws a 4+cc spell with the first trigger, which means that about a third of the time (in typical control shells), he’ll draw you 2+ additional pieces of action. Which is, of course, completely bonkers.
What I Don't Like: Well, he’s still no Grave Titan. And most smaller cubes simply don’t need more than 1 black 6cc creature; 2 at most for medium-sized ones. And there’s already Massacre Wurm to contend with in the #2 slot there, which depending on the cube composition might just be a much better card in your playgroup.
Verdict: This is either the #2 or #3 black 6cc creature, so at whatever size you’re looking to fill that slot, this should go in there. For me, I would test this in the #2 slot in 540/630 and play it in the #3 slot for sure at 720. Either way, this would spend at least some time in my medium-sized cube, and I’d include it in a large one for sure.
What I Like: Into the Roil is a solid cube card, and I would play it in most medium-sized cubes. The effect is good enough that I’d happily play a second one alongside it.
What I Don't Like: There are more interesting an unique bounce spells out there, which will prevent this from cracking smaller cubes.
Verdict: If the 1st Into the Roil is good, a 2nd one is just fine. I’d happily play both this and the original one in a 540/630+ card cube. Keep your eyes open for a free slot for this card.
What I Like: This competes pretty well with most of the modern Terror variants out there. It doesn’t hit quite as many targets as Go for the Throat (which seems to be the gold standard for this kind of effect now) but Cast Down competes well against Doom Blade and Ultimate Price. Once you’re in the market for a 2nd card in this vein, take a look at the composition of your particular list and play the one that hits the most targets (or the most relevant targets). My guess is that Cast Down will be the #2 card on this list for the majority of traditional cubes. At least, for now.
What I Don't Like: Removal is getting harder to compete with as time goes on, and most smaller cubes won’t need a 2nd version of this kind of effect. Not with all the creatures that have removal strapped to them nowadays.
Verdict: At whatever cube size you determine you want a 2nd Go for the Throat kind of effect, check your list and see if Cast Down is that card for you. For me, it would likely be somewhere in the 540/630 range.
What I Like: This takes Baneslayer’s often irrelevant minor upside that’s reliant on your opponent’s deck and replaces it with an often irrelevant minor upside that’s reliant on your deck. Which most of the time I prefer. There aren’t a ton of Angels in the cube, but most of the ones that are in there would benefit from the lifelink, and all of them would benefit from the +1/+1. Lyra can also be tutored-up by Thalia’s Lancers and protected with Karakas. It is also immune to the aforementioned Cast Down if you elect to cube with that.
What I Don't Like: Making the creature Legendary is not without it’s random drawbacks though; since you can’t effectively clone your own Lyra and have 2 in play, and it’s bad against your opponent’s Karakas.
Verdict: I like this slightly more than Baneslayer Angel, so if you’re a huge fan of Baneslayer, you can either replace her with this or just run both. I’m not a huge fan of BSA myself, so I won’t be running either in my 450, but in a 540/630+ card cube, I’d run this first, and then the original BSA just behind her.
What I Like: This card is better than Despise; and not just by a little bit, but by enough that even if you tested Despise and didn’t like it, Divest is still worth a close look. Divest will typically have about twice as many non-creature targets than Despise, and it also allows you to diversify the types of targets you can hit. With Despise, you were always hitting one type of card. A threat. But with Divest, you can elect to be more disruptive to the opponent when the opportunity arises. You might be able to take a mana rock and disrupt their curve or their mana. You might be able to take a utility card and change the opponent’s gameplan. You might be able to take a piece of equipment instead of another threat, and force them to overcommit to the board and walk into a sweeper. These are all aspects available to Divest that Despise simply couldn’t do for you. Not to mention all the value, utility and sheer volume of targets that the Ostracize mode has.
What I Don't Like: There’s only so many slots you can run for these kinds of effects, and despite the improvements over Despise, Divest is still no Thoughtseize, Duress or Inquisition.
Verdict: I think this card is being ignored by a lot of folks in the cube community, and I think it’s better than it looks. It can still grab big creature bombs and strip away threats, but the ability to grab artifacts adds an entirely different angle of attack to the effect. I would play this card at 540, and it’s probably worth a close look for cubes even smaller than that too.
What I Like: This Karn is really good. It’s a card advantage engine that immediately replaces itself when it resolves, with either a card off his {+1} ability or a creature from his {-2} ability. And while the ability from the {+1} activation gives the opponent some control over what specific card you draw, it still provides card advantage, and the card selection can be made up for by Karn’s {-1} effect. So you draw an extra card every turn that’s probably the worst one of your top 2, but then Karn can change into bomb Impulse mode when there’s something exiled by him that you really need. Plus, Karn has a lot of loyalty; making it easier to rely on his {-1} ability to make up for the shortcomings of his {+1} draw effect. {5} starting loyalty ticking up to {6} is pretty bonkers for a 4-mana colorless card, and it balances out the inconsistencies in his draw effects. The easy comparison is to compare Karn to Coercive Portal. Both cost 4 colorless mana and draw you an extra card each turn. Karn draws you a card the turn it resolves, but Portal doesn’t give the opponent any say in which card you draw. Portal can be shattered, and Karn, of course, can be attacked to death. They would be relatively comparable to one another if Karn’s value ended there …but it doesn’t. Karn also has his {-2} ability, which allows you to make bodies. He can defend himself with those tokens, make multiples to have them grow one another, or take advantage of the occasional stray artifact to give them a nice boost. That puts Karn above Portal in my estimation, and by quite a bit. Not to mention the ceiling that Karn has in a deck that is loaded with artifacts! I originally evaluated Karn with the assumption that you were going to need to play him in an artifact-centric shell in order for his {-2} ability to be any good, but that just turned out to not be the case. Instead of going from mediocre to good based on your artifact count, he went from great to insane depending on your artifact count. Karn will be playable in most every midrange and control deck in the cube, but he gets especially nasty in the artifact.dec.
What I Don't Like: When you’re under pressure, Karn’s ability to be attacked by the opponent can make it worse than Portal; especially if you’re digging for a specific out and the opponent has control over which one card you’ll draw before he gets attacked to death. But this is honestly a pretty minor nitpick considering how versatile he is and how good he’s been playing in practice.
Verdict: Karn is really good. I think it’s pretty much a shoe-in for cubes 450 cards or bigger, and depending on the playgroup, it’s probably worth finding room at 405 or even 360.
What I Like: Well, this is a strictly better Savannah Lions in this format, which means it’s going to be in contention for inclusion in even the smallest cubes. But Bodyguard is different than most of the others, because it has an upside that gives it pretty substantial value in the later stages of the game. If you have a curve-topper that needs protecting, a card like Bodyguard is good because I can use it to keep my Hero of Bladehold from being swept away by the opponent’s Wrath when I draw it later on in the game. This upside is far more relevant, impactful and commonplace than the upsides on cards like Dragon Hunter or even Soldier of the Pantheon. Not to mention that it still has a human creature type if that matters for your particular composition.
What I Don't Like: The ability is just flavor text when the creature comes down on an otherwise empty board, which means that on turn 1 (when cards like this are engineered to be played) this is nothing more than an Elite Vanguard.
Verdict: This is good enough to be one of the better 2-power 1-drops in white, so pretty much every cube of every size will likely find room for it.
Thanks for reading! Please comment below and we can discuss any and all things Dominaria and the cube! Cheers, and happy cubing.
Love these as always, thanks for the great write-up!! Also glad to see a lot of the cards I had my eye on but that there wasn't much chatter about get some validation.
What do you think of Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle? White fours are one of the most competitive places in all of cube, but it's easy enough to trigger this effect and it's incredibly powerful - even just getting one activation more than justifies the card, and it makes people prioritize during draft in interesting ways. I don't think I'd cube it if I had anything below 630, but I think it's better than a bit of the bottom of your list.
Perhaps. It's pretty fragile and kinda slow, and it requires a very specific and unique build to make it work. I think someone can break it in constructed as part of an infinite combo, but it looks hard to make work in the cube. Could be wrong though, and I hope it works out for you guys.
I had been anxiously anticipating this review - thanks!
I'll have to try Karn now... Initially was not that impressed. I'm surprised Verix is lower than a lot of the cards on the list; I wonder if I am over-valuing the flexibility.
I had been anxiously anticipating this review - thanks!
I'll have to try Karn now... Initially was not that impressed. I'm surprised Verix is lower than a lot of the cards on the list; I wonder if I am over-valuing the flexibility.
You're welcome!
And ya, I think the dragon is solid, but not amazing. The flexibility is nice, but red's 4cc creature suite is stacked. So it really needs to compete favorably as a big drop.
Great writeup and other a few minor disagreements, nothing worth mentioning specifically. I was a little disappointed not to see any of the triple mana symbol cards. I think Steel Leaf Champion and Goblin Chainwhirler are the best of the bunch, both in terms of raw power and because mono green and mono red tend to be the most common mono color decks built (at least in my experience). Do you think them being 3 mana symbols is basically a disqualification? When comparing them to Geralf's Messenger I can see how they aren't as good so I understand their exclusion.
Do you think them being 3 mana symbols is basically a disqualification?
There's nothing set in stone, but I haven't seen anything up to this point that can overcome that mana cost. I mean, if Necropotence is too narrow/hard to cast, a CCC costed card would have to be pretty ridiculous to make it in. Pox is close if you support mono black, but it also proved too narrow. You have to be pretty all-in on a given mono-colored strategy to dedicate a slot that's unplayable in so many situations. One of the biggest incentives to play mono-colored decks is the ability to run all the broken C-producing lands with impunity, and you lose that with CCC-costed spells.
I'd switch Karn and Bodyguard, Bodyguard has been good but Karn has been really insane. Sometimes Bodyguard isn't really doing much other than being a 2/1 for W or protecting another bear, but Karn has been excellent in pretty much every match up and in artifact-light decks too. Even when you're under pressure he lands with either 6 loyalty or an artifact chump blocker and 3 loyalty, making your opponent have to plan out turns ahead to see if they can outrace the card advantage. Karn is super excellent, I think easily #1 in the set.
I also have Divest wayyy lower now, even in a powered cube with tons of rocks. It's way more punishing to play it turns 2-3 than the other variants, and it just hits a lot less too it seems or rather it overlaps until it doesn't in a bad way. I'm prob going to cut it soon, there are a number of cards I'd put ahead it like History of Benalia, which has some real negatives but has played better than some stuff before it.
Thanks yet again for putting this together. Something I look forward to every set release. One thing to note is that Divest has additional utility beyond most one mana discard in that you can perform self discard to enable turn two reanimation. It even performs this role better than Thoughtseize!
While I haven't had a chance to play them in Cube yet, I was extremely impressed with how Sagas felt in Sealed, and will be taking a few for a spin in my cube. How down are you on The Mending of Dominaria in a cube context? Given that it costs 5 and doesn't immediately work towards stabilization, it's probably a late pick, but it was surprisingly fun.
I'd switch Karn and Bodyguard, Bodyguard has been good but Karn has been really insane.
Remember, it's not necessarily which card is better, but at what size I'd expect the card to see play. I could see Karn being excluded from some really small cubes, simply because they can't find a cut. Bodyguard will just bump something worse out, and it makes it for a clean and easy inclusion even in the smallest of cubes.
Quote from KMAYER »
Thanks yet again for putting this together. Something I look forward to every set release. One thing to note is that Divest has additional utility beyond most one mana discard in that you can perform self discard to enable turn two reanimation. It even performs this role better than Thoughtseize!
Very cool! I hadn't considered that interaction, and that's pretty neat. Thanks for sharing!
Quote from Cythare »
...Sagas...
There are some sagas that I like quite a bit. But I don't think that green one is very good.
Yeah I don't know, I get it's a small sample size so far but I'd be hard pressed to remove Karn from even the smallest cubes unless it was some crazy micro cube with zero ramp or some weird niche, which I don't know would be enough to list it lower. It's more like 1a and 1b as I agree Bodyguard would make all the same cubes, but Karn has truly been dynamic in play even in the non-artifact decks.
Even the disadvantage of getting the 'worse' card hasn't been one, feels more like filtering than anything else as getting the good card back hasn't been a problem and often means you're protecting your karn which lost loyalty. There are a lot more moments where Bodyguard feels replaceable i.e. it acts like a Savannah Lions a card many people don't run, whereas Karn has been a key piece in all the decks it's been in.
I don't disagree. Karn has been a beast. I just think he's harder to find room for in smaller cubes, and that (plus several other small factors) might ultimately keep it out of more lists than Bodyguard. Cuts in the colorless section of a powered 360 card cube are pretty steep. But most cubes have a worse Lion variant they can trim to get Bodyguard in there.
I think right now people are hesitant to call him a 360 staple due to not wanting to feel burned by overhyping him, but I imagine with time he'll cement a place there. I've been looking through 360 lists on cubetutor and can usually find 1 or 2 cards I'd cut for him.
You're probably right. But at the end of the day, right now anyways, I think Bodyguard will probably have a higher cube inclusion percentage. Whether that's correct or not is another story.
Great writeup. I agree that this is not a great set for many cube managers, but I love the set overall. It's definitely reminiscent of the early days of Magic, just with fewer cards that actively suck. But hey, we all thought Craw Wurm was good at some point, right?
Also, I hate to be That Guy, but in your writeup for #17, you want Breeding Pit, not Breeding Pool. Man, I remember when the Pit was savage tech to keep your Lord of the Pit happy. Hooray for progress.
An absolute joy to read as always. Great call on Blink of an Eye at 6; it may be boring but it's very solid and the total lack of discussion around it had me a bit flustered.
If your criterion is what size cube cards will go in (and that's not a bad criterion) Dauntless Bodyguard is a clear #1. But even in powered 360 (rather small and very competitive) Karn is easily the best card in this set for us. I think it's just more meaningful to have criteria where he ends up winning. Only small gripe with the list.
In fact, I think Karn is so powerful he will see Vintage play.
Glad you enjoyed it! Ya, Karn is probably the best card in the set, but I played it safe this time. And ya, cube size has always been my metric for these articles. Not always the best way to organize it, but that's how I've done it nonetheless.
Great writeup. I agree that this is not a great set for many cube managers, but I love the set overall. It's definitely reminiscent of the early days of Magic, just with fewer cards that actively suck. But hey, we all thought Craw Wurm was good at some point, right?
Also, I hate to be That Guy, but in your writeup for #17, you want Breeding Pit, not Breeding Pool. Man, I remember when the Pit was savage tech to keep your Lord of the Pit happy. Hooray for progress.
My favorite set in a long time. Just not for cube.
I've alwyas loved this series. I don't have a magic group any more but I still come here from time to time to read these. Especially when a set catches my interest. Would be cool if you wrote these for years gone past. Like top 20 cards in cube from 2000-2003. Since these set reviews are written relatively off the cuff and are more theory crafting, it would be nice to see how you review them looking back.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
Thanks for the feedback. You're not the first person to suggest that either. I'm sure it would provide good/interesting content, but I'm strapped for time and barely have enough of it to do these 4 articles each year...
I was estatic I was able to buy a Karn to avoid the price jump but it is supposed to be for my Artifact Cube.... but now this article and the forums has convinced me to buy another one for Cube! And why not, I still have all three masticores and looks like Karn can replace one of the 3. Oh my poor wallet! For now I'll be switching the card between the cubes to save money
I am such a fan of Dauntless Bodyguard. As a 1 drop it is just a Lion but if you drop it later its value increases as well.
I don't disagree. Karn has been a beast. I just think he's harder to find room for in smaller cubes, and that (plus several other small factors) might ultimately keep it out of more lists than Bodyguard. Cuts in the colorless section of a powered 360 card cube are pretty steep. But most cubes have a worse Lion variant they can trim to get Bodyguard in there.
This is what I find funny in cube rankings. They are not really comparisons on their relative power but on their relative power to their respective slots.
This is what I find funny in cube rankings. They are not really comparisons on their relative power but on their relative power to their respective slots.
Correct. If black got a siege-gang commander, I'd throw Wizards and damned parade. But they can spoil an amazing white 4cc spell and I'm like "ain't nobody got room for that!" ...it's funny that way.
This is my 25th (how perfectly fitting!) 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.
I want to preface this article by saying that Dominaria is hands-down my favorite Magic set in recent memory. I love the return to familiar mechanics, places and characters. But even more than that, I love the return to the classic fantasy world. The art feels classically Magical in nature. The high fantasy themes, the heroes and the knights and the monsters and the wizards …it feels like a genuine return to the best things about Magic that made me fall in love with the game over 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the set isn’t fantastic for smaller cubes, so this won’t be the format for me to eternalize the new cards in all their glory, but it didn’t stop me from fawning over the card image gallery when it dropped. There are some gems in here for our format though, and very likely some diamonds in the rough that are worth exploring.
Without further ado, I can start the countdown!
Verix Bladewing
A mono-red Broodmate Dragon.
What I Like: Red doesn’t have a lot of good options for 7+cc superfatties, and Verix has the flexibility of either being both a 7cc mono-red Broodmate and having a failsafe mode as a 4/4 flying creature for 4 mana if you just need something for the middle of the curve. Neither mode is spectacular, but larger cubes that are looking for a flexible creature that can fill multiple spots in the curve might find something fun and flexible in Verix.
What I Don't Like: In the current cube era, neither mode is powerful enough to be spectacular. It’s not good enough to compete as a 4-drop, and the appealing part of Broodmate mode is the lack of competition at the 7+ mana slot.
Verdict: Large cubes where managers like to dedicate at least one 7+cmc slot to a “superfatty” in each color might find some value from Verix. It’s too inefficient in either of its modes to compete on their own, but the fact that it can be both a passable 4-drop and a reasonable 7-drop adds value in its flexibility.
Time of Ice
Top-end blue tempo.
What I Like: Getting a Telekinesis, a Take Into Custody and an Undo for 3U is a pretty good deal. It will help you press a board advantage, prevents the opponent from following up with a stabilizing blocker, and ends with a powerful tempo play. There will be board states where Time of Ice will be able to completely lock things up for you. And the art on the card is absolutely incredible.
What I Don't Like: The 4cc spell slot is stacked with amazing cards, and finding room for a relatively narrow (albeit powerful) tempo-exclusive card will prove difficult.
Verdict: If you manage a larger cube and have a higher-end spell slot open for tempo support, you should try out Time of Ice in that slot and see how it performs. I think it’s a card that will play out in practice to be far more impactful than it appears on paper.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
A solid generic Azorius ‘walker.
What I Like: As the always observant Usman pointed out in his article, Teferi’s template is akin to the recent 5cc Ob Nixilis and Jace planeswalkers. But the key to Teferi is the ability to untap the lands at the end of turn, allowing you to tap out for powerful permanents (including the Teferi himself) and leave mana up for permission and reactive spells on the opponent’s turn. This makes Teferi a planeswalker that can play well in traditional draw-go control decks, where most other ‘walkers are going to perform ideally in a tap-out style control deck. It makes him unique in that way. Additionally, he can deal with problematic permanents and has a very powerful ultimate ability. If you want to represent the Azorius guild with a planeswalker and don’t have a need for one of the more deck-specific options like Venser or Narset, Teferi is worth a look.
What I Don't Like: In this day and age, the guild slot competition is pretty intense. A few years ago, this card would’ve been a staple for this guild. But now, the options are vast and powerful, and it will probably limit the play this sees in cubes.
Verdict: Cubes that are big enough to have an open guild slot for him, and/or cubes with deep guild sections might want to give Teferi a shot to prove himself. I think he’s better than he looks, and he fits well into decks that are always looking for additional support.
Rite of Belzenlok
A decent support card for deep Aristocrats shells.
What I Like: Do you remember when Breeding Pit took 5 turns and 12 mana to make 4 0/1 tokens …and didn’t come with a 6/6 flying trample stapled to it? Pepperidge Farm remembers. This looks like an (albeit slightly worse) Nissa, Voice of Zendikar type card, in that decks that are looking to max out on both of it’s primary effects can put it to good use. Decks that are in the market for 0/1 creatures to sacrifice AND are looking for sacrifice outlets can make pretty decent use of Rite. On its own it’s too slow and low-impact, but if the deck is engineered to use all three of it’s triggers to their maximum efficiency, Rite can be quite powerful.
What I Don't Like: Unlike the token-supporting Nissa, this sacrifice-supporting Rite doesn’t allow you to control the order/timing of its effects. Meaning that the deck will often have tokens/recursive creatures and need an immediate sacrifice outlet to take advantage of them, and with Rite, you’ll have to wait multiple turns to get it. And if the opponent can somehow control your stream of tokens and recursive bodies, the Demon can come in off “suspend” and not have any food.
Verdict: If you manage a bigger cube that’s all-in on the sacrifice/token/aristocrats style shells, this card might prove valuable to you. But as a generic “goodstuff” card, this will fall short.
Fungal Infection
A solid Disfigure variant.
What I Like: On defense against aggro or in matchups involving a lot of combat, Fungal Infection is a deceptively powerful little trick. You can kill two X/1 attackers on defense, a single X/2 attacker or use it outside of combat to kill a 1-toughness value creature and leave yourself a token for your troubles. Decks that can make the token worth more than just its 1/1 body (via Anthems or Skullclamp or whatever) might value this spell higher than another -X/-X effect for that reason alone.
What I Don't Like: Even in comparison to Disfigure (a card that doesn’t see a ton of cube play anymore) there are several situations where the Infection falls short. It can’t simply kill an X/2 creature outside of combat. Even in combat, I can’t use this to save my 2/2 creature against a 3/3 attacker, since the opponent can order blockers appropriately. So as the creature size increases or combat is less relevant, Infection loses value in comparison to existing options.
Verdict: In a larger cube that’s both aggro heavy and combat-oriented, Fungal Infection might be really strong. Worth a look if your cube meets those descriptions.
Phyrexian Scriptures
A unique sweeper effect.
What I Like: One of the ways to make sweepers effective in a creature-centric cube format is to make them asymmetrical. Scriptures has a built-in way to break the symmetry. First, it only kills non-artifact creatures, so a deck that prioritizes taking those kinds of threats will have a natural advantage there. Second, the ETB trigger on Scriptures will not only make a creature bigger, but will turn it into an artifact creature to survive the sweeper effect. It also happens to come with a built-in mechanism for clearing the opponent’s graveyard, which can be powerful with cards like Exhume and Living Death, and can also randomly hose certain decks looking to utilize their graveyard as a resource.
What I Don't Like: One of the most important aspects of sweeper effects is being able to control the timing window in which they occur. And unfortunately with Scriptures, the effect is on “delay” which not only makes it a worse topdeck, but may open yourself up to taking another turn of big damage before it impacts the board. Not to mention that the opponent may randomly have their own artifact creatures out, which will survive your effect.
Verdict: There will be windows where Scriptures will be fantastic. And there will ultimately be situations where it’s dead and/or slow and unimpactful. I’m not looking for spells with that kind of variance in my cube, but larger cubes with an aggressive artifact beatdown theme might be able to take just enough advantage from Scriptures’ upside to make it worthwhile.
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
A nice hoser effect with a built-in late-game engine.
What I Like: There are bound to be decks at the table that get hosed by Shalai’s protection effect. And when those matchups arise, you will feel “pre-boarded” against those players, and you’ll be able to turn off a ton of different effects. And the +1/+1 counter effect is slow and grindy, but it’ll be hugely impactful in some situations and really adds a lot of value to the creature in those matchups where the primary ability isn’t as valuable.
What I Don't Like: In situations where the primary effect isn’t valuable, Shalai is quite fair. There will be a lot of situations where she doesn’t seem to do much, and 4cc slots aren’t freely open when deckbuilding very often. Additionally, the Township ability is so critical to it’s maindeckability that she will typically take up a Selesnya slot during drafting/deckbuilding, and that guild is hard to crack into.
Verdict: I like this Angel, and if my cube was big enough to have an open Selesnya slot #6 or #7 available (probably in the 720 range) I’d be happy to give her a chance to prove her worth. I like the GW token/anthem deck, and she can really shine there even in matchups where the hexproof ability isn’t critical.
Territorial Allosaurus
A decent green 4-drop with a good kicker effect.
What I Like: Green’s 4cc creature section is relatively shallow, and that opens up a need in larger cubes for above-average filler creatures. Enter Allosaurus. A 5/5 for 4 mana isn’t stellar these days, but is nice to have as an on-curve option if you just need a 4-drop and/or the opponent isn’t presenting good targets for you to fight.
What I Don't Like: This is a mediocre 4-drop and a solid 7-drop, but not an amazing card in either situation. It’s decent enough to make the final-40 as a 22nd or 23rd card if the flexibility is going to be valuable to the deck, but it’s not a card I’d pick from a pack unless I didn’t have any other better options to choose from.
Verdict: I think the options for the green 4cc creature section in 720+ sized cubes is still in a situation where Allosaurus could slot in and not feel out-of-place. But I ultimately think it’s too fair to breach lists that are smaller than that.
Darigaaz Reincarnated
A solid big Jund dragon.
What I Like: This competes decently with Hellkite Overlord as a top end Jund card. Similarly to what we learned with the 7cc Nicol Bolas in comparison to the 8cc Nicol bolas, making a big spell both cheaper and easier to cast has value. Overlord is arguably better in decks that have no interest in casting it, but Darigaaz being cheaper does have its upsides there. Decks that might not play the Overlord because of its prohibitive mana cost might be able to attempt to cast Darigaaz, meaning that it might be useful for a wider range of decks. His recursion ability is painfully slow, but there can be grindy control matchups where the ability is still relevant. And as steve_man pointed out in this card’s SCD thread, the recursion ability’s interaction with Sneak Attack and Through the Breach is really cool, especially if powered ahead of the curve. Breaching this into play on T3 post mana-ramp or something will allow the recursion ability to trigger fast enough to be relevant.
What I Don't Like: With the Bolas comparison, the mana cost difference really mattered, because Bolas was almost exclusively being hardcast. Whereas in this case, Overlord is almost exclusively being reanimated, Natural Ordered or being snuck into play. Outside of the off-chance that Darigaaz is being hardcast, I’d rather have Overlord in play instead of Darigaaz 9 times out of 10. Not to mention that Darigaaz’s recursion ability isn’t a may …you have to exile him. So decks that are trying to reanimate creatures from the graveyard after they die may look at that effect as a drawback.
Verdict: If your cube is of a size where you have a dedicated Jund slot, and you play Jund ramp as often as you play Jund reanimator/Natural Order decks, Darigaaz is an attractive option. But I don’t see this replacing other commonly run Jund cards in every cube that has the room, and most smaller cubes don’t have room anyways. I don’t see this making the cut in too many cubes smaller than 630+ in size.
Broken Bond
A unique Naturalize variant.
What I Like: Three things need to happen for this effect to be great. You need to have a target during the window when the extra land is live, you need to have an extra land in hand, and you need to have that combination of things fall into a circumstance where the extra land will also be relevant (where either you can use the extra mana immediately or you have an additional land you can play next turn so the free land actually “ramps” you). When that specific combination of things happens, this card puts the Broken in Broken Bond. Conveniently, even if the effect doesn’t prove relevant, it has a floor of a sorcery-speed Naturalize at the very worst, which isn’t terrible. Powered cubes have a plethora of early targets that can assist Broken Bond with giving you the ceiling side of its effect with more regularity.
What I Don't Like: If you either don’t have an early target, don’t have an extra land, or the extra land is irrelevant, this spell doesn’t do anything special, and it would’ve been better off as one of a hundred different cards instead. I think it will be very hard for unpowered cubes to reliably have targets early enough for it to be relevant. Plus, green is full of Naturalize and Shatter effects that are strapped to bodies, which works a lot better with green’s natural synergies and provides green some forms of card advantage.
Verdict: If your cube cube is 630+ in size and it’s powered with the full range of early artifact mana, Broken Bond is likely worth a spin. The ceiling is great, the floor isn’t unacceptably bad, and it’s cheap and versatile.
History of Benalia
A token and anthem combo card.
What I Like: 4 power and 2 bodies for 3 mana is a decent rate. It can be powerful with effects that can blink it, and it has other cool interactions like Sun Titan and similar effects. The surprising part of the value is actually from the pump trigger; smashing for 8 is a powerful thing to do with a 3cc card, especially when the baseline effect is relatively reasonable.
What I Don't Like: It’s just missing that one thing that would’ve put it over the top. A 2W cost. First Strike instead of Vigilance. 2/3 bodies instead of 2/2s (to take advantage of the Vigilance in a meaningful way). Hell, even lifelink. As is, the card is solid but unexciting, and it just needed that last push to put it over the top. It’s also a frustrating card to have the opponent deal with after only making one body. It gives them a nice on-curve Reclamation Sage target that will deny you the 2nd body and the pump trigger.
Verdict: I don’t think cubes that are smaller than 630 cards will have much success finding room for History, which is unfortunate because the art on both the spell and its matching tokens is amazing. In constructed were you can curve out with History and nothing but other Knights at every turn it’s going to be very good. But in the cube where the pump isn’t likely to benefit anything other than its own tokens with any regularity, it’s only okay at best.
Josu Vess, Lich Knight
A cool 4-drop with a big kicker.
What I Like: Menace is a good keyword on a 4/5 body in a format loaded with Lions and Pikers and Bears (oh my!). It not only forces double-blocks, but bad double-blocks a lot of the time. And this card is super fun. I mean, it has a 10-mana mode that puts 20 power worth of Menace bodies on the table, which is so awesome. It’s a card that appeals to me more based of flavor than expected performance. But in the rare Golgari super-ramp deck that’s trying to cast Griselbrands and Ulamogs, having a creature that can flex as a passable 4-drop and a game-ending ramp target is reasonably valuable. Additionally, Wildfire decks want the on-curve 5-toughness body AND they’re loaded with artifact ramp that may occasionally allow you to 20-ball the opponent.
What I Don't Like: I playtested this card pretty extensively in the hopes that it would be good enough. It was a 4/5 Menace for 4 mana damn near every time it was played. Which just wasn’t good enough. I was able to kick it once (and, as expected, it won the game) …but after I got my “achievement unlocked” moment, I evaluated the number of times it had resolved vs the number of times it was kicked and decided it was simply too Magical Christmas Land for my tastes.
Verdict: Super cool card, and a blast to play with. Black’s 4cc creatures aren’t saturated with many decent oversized beaters, and you might be able to shoehorn Josu Vess into the list and have it be relatively defensible (just on the coolness factor alone). But I can’t see this making it into cubes any smaller than 540-630 at the smallest, and even there it would largely be just because he’s really cool.
The Antiquities War
A nice artifact.dec support card.
What I Like: In a deck loaded to the brim with artifacts, the draw effect is pretty consistent. And with enough cheap artifacts, attacking for lethal with the III-mode trigger will be a really fun moment. I like that it’s splashable and generates card advantage, in addition to providing a deck that traditionally is a little short on win conditions with another way to potentially steal wins. If you hit with both of the early modes, the card is great.
What I Don't Like: I tested this out as part of the artifact package, and while it was good in some builds, you really need a lot of artifacts for this to do enough. And I found the 5/5 creature mode to be less consistent than I wanted to …the opponent has time to prepare for it, and they can deal with the artifacts or give them a blocker or two and you’re back to square one. Plus, even with a huge saturation of artifacts, it hurts really bad when the I or II mode misses. Moreso than with Tezz 2.0, because his ability only cost you time instead of a card (and it still grows his loyalty), and you have more control over when it’s time to switch into 5/5 beatdown mode.
Verdict: This doesn’t crack the top tier of artifact.dec support cards, but fits into the tier-2 wave of them. If you’re supporting the artifact.dec in a cube that’s 540/630 cards or bigger, give this a spin though, because it can be very powerful when it works.
Demonlord Belzenlok
A good option for the tier-2 black 6cc creature slot.
What I Like: 6 mana for a 6/6 Flying Trampler that not only draws a card when it comes into play, but guarantees that the card you draw is more gas …that’s his floor. Don’t sleep on Belzenlok. His ceiling is absurd too; he repeats his draw trigger when he draws a 4+cc spell with the first trigger, which means that about a third of the time (in typical control shells), he’ll draw you 2+ additional pieces of action. Which is, of course, completely bonkers.
What I Don't Like: Well, he’s still no Grave Titan. And most smaller cubes simply don’t need more than 1 black 6cc creature; 2 at most for medium-sized ones. And there’s already Massacre Wurm to contend with in the #2 slot there, which depending on the cube composition might just be a much better card in your playgroup.
Verdict: This is either the #2 or #3 black 6cc creature, so at whatever size you’re looking to fill that slot, this should go in there. For me, I would test this in the #2 slot in 540/630 and play it in the #3 slot for sure at 720. Either way, this would spend at least some time in my medium-sized cube, and I’d include it in a large one for sure.
Blink of an Eye
A functional reprint of Into the Roil.
What I Like: Into the Roil is a solid cube card, and I would play it in most medium-sized cubes. The effect is good enough that I’d happily play a second one alongside it.
What I Don't Like: There are more interesting an unique bounce spells out there, which will prevent this from cracking smaller cubes.
Verdict: If the 1st Into the Roil is good, a 2nd one is just fine. I’d happily play both this and the original one in a 540/630+ card cube. Keep your eyes open for a free slot for this card.
Cast Down
A new Doom Blade variant.
What I Like: This competes pretty well with most of the modern Terror variants out there. It doesn’t hit quite as many targets as Go for the Throat (which seems to be the gold standard for this kind of effect now) but Cast Down competes well against Doom Blade and Ultimate Price. Once you’re in the market for a 2nd card in this vein, take a look at the composition of your particular list and play the one that hits the most targets (or the most relevant targets). My guess is that Cast Down will be the #2 card on this list for the majority of traditional cubes. At least, for now.
What I Don't Like: Removal is getting harder to compete with as time goes on, and most smaller cubes won’t need a 2nd version of this kind of effect. Not with all the creatures that have removal strapped to them nowadays.
Verdict: At whatever cube size you determine you want a 2nd Go for the Throat kind of effect, check your list and see if Cast Down is that card for you. For me, it would likely be somewhere in the 540/630 range.
Lyra Dawnbringer
A new Baneslayer Angel variant.
What I Like: This takes Baneslayer’s often irrelevant minor upside that’s reliant on your opponent’s deck and replaces it with an often irrelevant minor upside that’s reliant on your deck. Which most of the time I prefer. There aren’t a ton of Angels in the cube, but most of the ones that are in there would benefit from the lifelink, and all of them would benefit from the +1/+1. Lyra can also be tutored-up by Thalia’s Lancers and protected with Karakas. It is also immune to the aforementioned Cast Down if you elect to cube with that.
What I Don't Like: Making the creature Legendary is not without it’s random drawbacks though; since you can’t effectively clone your own Lyra and have 2 in play, and it’s bad against your opponent’s Karakas.
Verdict: I like this slightly more than Baneslayer Angel, so if you’re a huge fan of Baneslayer, you can either replace her with this or just run both. I’m not a huge fan of BSA myself, so I won’t be running either in my 450, but in a 540/630+ card cube, I’d run this first, and then the original BSA just behind her.
Divest
A new Despise variant.
What I Like: This card is better than Despise; and not just by a little bit, but by enough that even if you tested Despise and didn’t like it, Divest is still worth a close look. Divest will typically have about twice as many non-creature targets than Despise, and it also allows you to diversify the types of targets you can hit. With Despise, you were always hitting one type of card. A threat. But with Divest, you can elect to be more disruptive to the opponent when the opportunity arises. You might be able to take a mana rock and disrupt their curve or their mana. You might be able to take a utility card and change the opponent’s gameplan. You might be able to take a piece of equipment instead of another threat, and force them to overcommit to the board and walk into a sweeper. These are all aspects available to Divest that Despise simply couldn’t do for you. Not to mention all the value, utility and sheer volume of targets that the Ostracize mode has.
What I Don't Like: There’s only so many slots you can run for these kinds of effects, and despite the improvements over Despise, Divest is still no Thoughtseize, Duress or Inquisition.
Verdict: I think this card is being ignored by a lot of folks in the cube community, and I think it’s better than it looks. It can still grab big creature bombs and strip away threats, but the ability to grab artifacts adds an entirely different angle of attack to the effect. I would play this card at 540, and it’s probably worth a close look for cubes even smaller than that too.
Karn, Scion of Urza
A new colorless card advantage ‘walker.
What I Like: This Karn is really good. It’s a card advantage engine that immediately replaces itself when it resolves, with either a card off his {+1} ability or a creature from his {-2} ability. And while the ability from the {+1} activation gives the opponent some control over what specific card you draw, it still provides card advantage, and the card selection can be made up for by Karn’s {-1} effect. So you draw an extra card every turn that’s probably the worst one of your top 2, but then Karn can change into bomb Impulse mode when there’s something exiled by him that you really need. Plus, Karn has a lot of loyalty; making it easier to rely on his {-1} ability to make up for the shortcomings of his {+1} draw effect. {5} starting loyalty ticking up to {6} is pretty bonkers for a 4-mana colorless card, and it balances out the inconsistencies in his draw effects. The easy comparison is to compare Karn to Coercive Portal. Both cost 4 colorless mana and draw you an extra card each turn. Karn draws you a card the turn it resolves, but Portal doesn’t give the opponent any say in which card you draw. Portal can be shattered, and Karn, of course, can be attacked to death. They would be relatively comparable to one another if Karn’s value ended there …but it doesn’t. Karn also has his {-2} ability, which allows you to make bodies. He can defend himself with those tokens, make multiples to have them grow one another, or take advantage of the occasional stray artifact to give them a nice boost. That puts Karn above Portal in my estimation, and by quite a bit. Not to mention the ceiling that Karn has in a deck that is loaded with artifacts! I originally evaluated Karn with the assumption that you were going to need to play him in an artifact-centric shell in order for his {-2} ability to be any good, but that just turned out to not be the case. Instead of going from mediocre to good based on your artifact count, he went from great to insane depending on your artifact count. Karn will be playable in most every midrange and control deck in the cube, but he gets especially nasty in the artifact.dec.
What I Don't Like: When you’re under pressure, Karn’s ability to be attacked by the opponent can make it worse than Portal; especially if you’re digging for a specific out and the opponent has control over which one card you’ll draw before he gets attacked to death. But this is honestly a pretty minor nitpick considering how versatile he is and how good he’s been playing in practice.
Verdict: Karn is really good. I think it’s pretty much a shoe-in for cubes 450 cards or bigger, and depending on the playgroup, it’s probably worth finding room at 405 or even 360.
Dauntless Bodyguard
A new Elite Vanguard variant.
What I Like: Well, this is a strictly better Savannah Lions in this format, which means it’s going to be in contention for inclusion in even the smallest cubes. But Bodyguard is different than most of the others, because it has an upside that gives it pretty substantial value in the later stages of the game. If you have a curve-topper that needs protecting, a card like Bodyguard is good because I can use it to keep my Hero of Bladehold from being swept away by the opponent’s Wrath when I draw it later on in the game. This upside is far more relevant, impactful and commonplace than the upsides on cards like Dragon Hunter or even Soldier of the Pantheon. Not to mention that it still has a human creature type if that matters for your particular composition.
What I Don't Like: The ability is just flavor text when the creature comes down on an otherwise empty board, which means that on turn 1 (when cards like this are engineered to be played) this is nothing more than an Elite Vanguard.
Verdict: This is good enough to be one of the better 2-power 1-drops in white, so pretty much every cube of every size will likely find room for it.
Thanks for reading! Please comment below and we can discuss any and all things Dominaria and the cube! Cheers, and happy cubing.
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What do you think of Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle? White fours are one of the most competitive places in all of cube, but it's easy enough to trigger this effect and it's incredibly powerful - even just getting one activation more than justifies the card, and it makes people prioritize during draft in interesting ways. I don't think I'd cube it if I had anything below 630, but I think it's better than a bit of the bottom of your list.
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I'll have to try Karn now... Initially was not that impressed. I'm surprised Verix is lower than a lot of the cards on the list; I wonder if I am over-valuing the flexibility.
Great article as always!
Even though there weren't many hits for small cubes in this set, happy enough to get 2 cards that should last a long time.
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And ya, I think the dragon is solid, but not amazing. The flexibility is nice, but red's 4cc creature suite is stacked. So it really needs to compete favorably as a big drop.
If you agree, than I'm sure I did something right this time.
And ya, both Karn and the Bodyguard will likely be long-time inclusions.
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There's nothing set in stone, but I haven't seen anything up to this point that can overcome that mana cost. I mean, if Necropotence is too narrow/hard to cast, a CCC costed card would have to be pretty ridiculous to make it in. Pox is close if you support mono black, but it also proved too narrow. You have to be pretty all-in on a given mono-colored strategy to dedicate a slot that's unplayable in so many situations. One of the biggest incentives to play mono-colored decks is the ability to run all the broken C-producing lands with impunity, and you lose that with CCC-costed spells.
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I'd switch Karn and Bodyguard, Bodyguard has been good but Karn has been really insane. Sometimes Bodyguard isn't really doing much other than being a 2/1 for W or protecting another bear, but Karn has been excellent in pretty much every match up and in artifact-light decks too. Even when you're under pressure he lands with either 6 loyalty or an artifact chump blocker and 3 loyalty, making your opponent have to plan out turns ahead to see if they can outrace the card advantage. Karn is super excellent, I think easily #1 in the set.
I also have Divest wayyy lower now, even in a powered cube with tons of rocks. It's way more punishing to play it turns 2-3 than the other variants, and it just hits a lot less too it seems or rather it overlaps until it doesn't in a bad way. I'm prob going to cut it soon, there are a number of cards I'd put ahead it like History of Benalia, which has some real negatives but has played better than some stuff before it.
Good work, thanks for sharing!
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Remember, it's not necessarily which card is better, but at what size I'd expect the card to see play. I could see Karn being excluded from some really small cubes, simply because they can't find a cut. Bodyguard will just bump something worse out, and it makes it for a clean and easy inclusion even in the smallest of cubes.
Very cool! I hadn't considered that interaction, and that's pretty neat. Thanks for sharing!
There are some sagas that I like quite a bit. But I don't think that green one is very good.
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Even the disadvantage of getting the 'worse' card hasn't been one, feels more like filtering than anything else as getting the good card back hasn't been a problem and often means you're protecting your karn which lost loyalty. There are a lot more moments where Bodyguard feels replaceable i.e. it acts like a Savannah Lions a card many people don't run, whereas Karn has been a key piece in all the decks it's been in.
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Great stuff as always, Mark.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
Also, I hate to be That Guy, but in your writeup for #17, you want Breeding Pit, not Breeding Pool. Man, I remember when the Pit was savage tech to keep your Lord of the Pit happy. Hooray for progress.
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I used to write for MTGS, including Cranial Insertion and cube articles. Good on you if you can find those after the upgrade.
Glad you enjoyed it! Ya, Karn is probably the best card in the set, but I played it safe this time. And ya, cube size has always been my metric for these articles. Not always the best way to organize it, but that's how I've done it nonetheless.
Thanks! And yes, Karn's a beast. Might be good in a legacy 12-post kind of shell.
My favorite set in a long time. Just not for cube.
And I fixed that typo. Thanks.
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I am such a fan of Dauntless Bodyguard. As a 1 drop it is just a Lion but if you drop it later its value increases as well.
This is what I find funny in cube rankings. They are not really comparisons on their relative power but on their relative power to their respective slots.
This list is/was really helpful for my peasant call be and I. Thank you.
WUBRGHumansWUBRG
EDH:
WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG
UGEdric, Spymaster of TrestUG
Correct. If black got a siege-gang commander, I'd throw Wizards and damned parade. But they can spoil an amazing white 4cc spell and I'm like "ain't nobody got room for that!" ...it's funny that way.
Bodyguard is super good. And you're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed the article.
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Not much to disagree with here. Fun set is fun, but underwhelming for cube set is underwhelming for cube.
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