Not the greatest hate bear in the world, but graveyard hate is always nice. Probably a decent option for large cubes.
A creature version that’s in-between Lingering Souls and Midnight Haunting. Not terribly exciting, but being a creature generally has more benefits than being a sorcery since there are more synergies to be had. Being able to exile a creature is a nice option to have. While white has a ton of great 3-cmc cards, most of them are 1WW. I’ll probably give this a test at 540 to bolster tokens / aristocrats strategies.
Oh god, another planeswalker for 2WW. Now that we got that out of our system, Ajani is what Gideon, Ally of Zendikar would have been if he was actually balanced. That being said, this Ajani is the #4 planeswalker in the 4-cmc white slot at best, and is a farcry from Elspeth / Gideon / Serra.
I’m not the biggest fan of Beast Within effects in cube. In EDH, nobody cares about a 3/3 since there’s multiple players starting at 40 life, but a 3/3 is a legitimate threat in limited. The death trigger also seems narrow. If I want removal on a 5-drop that has value when it dies I’d rather just play Angel of Sanctions.
Huge lifelink flying body is nice, but she seems narrow even for a flyers payoff. Her cost reduction seems a bit win more because if I have four flyers lying around I’m probably just attacking.
BLUE
Best version of Flying Men / Azure Mage? Seems great if you’re really into pushing blue tempo.
This seems really pushed for a common in limited. Seems middling for cube unless you’re really pushing blue tempo.
Interesting design. She reminds me of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in the sense that you can only use her minus ability until you've activated her plus ability at least once and that her minus ability creates a creature. I do like Mu Yanling over Ashiok since her plus ability actually has an impact on the board and she has a set rate of a 4/4 flyer on her minus ability.
As far as 3-cmc blue planeswalkers goes, I think Jace and Narset have broader applications. She's pretty bad if all you do is get to activate her plus ability before she dies. Might give her a spin if I can find a cut, but I'm not too optimistic about her in general. I see a lot of people compare her to Serra, but at least Serra guarantees a 4/4 flyer with vigilance. After testing Serra extensively, she almost always dies the following turn, which probably means there’s going to be a lot of scenarios where Mu Yanling can’t even generate a flyer.
For those who wants to get their Exodia on, this is the card for you.
Dig Through Time at a fixed rate of 2UU at sorcery speed. It's definitely no Fact or Fiction, but this is more reliable than Treasure Cruise / Dig Through Time in the early / mid game.
Because Drawn from Dreams is a sorcery, it should be competing with Treasure Cruise / Deep Analysis, not Fact or Fiction / Dig Through Time. Being able to cast this during the development phase of a game on turn 3-4 where Treasure Cruise / Dig Through Time typically can't be cast is pretty big. Obviously the delve spells are better late game because you cast them + easily play more threats on the same turn. Late game this still might have the advantage over Treasure Cruise just because at that point I'm more interested in digging for very specific cards rather than gaining raw card advantage.
Personally I think this card is being underestimated because it’s being compared to Dig Through Time, but this competes for the Treasure Cruise / Deep Analysis slot, IMO. It really drives me crazy that I can’t cast Treasure Cruise / Dig Through Time on turn 3 or 4, especially off a mana rock. This digs for a lot of bombs / combo pieces like Tinker / Oath of Druids / Moat or can help set up your big Upheaval / Wildfire plays. I’m probably going to give this a test over Treasure Cruise, which I’ve always been medium on, plus it’s better to have less delve spells competing for graveyard fodder.
The best of the cavalier cycle, IMO. 5/5 flying with ETB Brainstorm is nice for a Baneslayer type card, and the death trigger of shuffle itself into the library / scry 2 is a great way to not draw useless lands late game. This competes with Meloku in CMC and Kefnet in function. I like Meloku more since he can just take over the game once you untap with him, and Kefnet being cheaper and having a better recursive option is more attractive to me than the 2UUU cost, but the guaranteed value is really nice. This reminds me a lot of Doom Whisperer, but 6/6 flying and trample is huge on top of 3BB over 2UUU. I might give this a test if I can find a cut, but it won’t be at the expense of Meloku / Kefnet.
This being an instant is really nice. Being able to swing with an army of Wurmcoil Engines is also pretty cool. A strong card in its own right, my only complaint is the lack of great artifacts to copy and the steep competition in blue in general.
Being able to steal something and your opponent not being able to blow something up to get their permanent back is very powerful. Unfortunately, 7-mana is too steep of a price for this and is only really good with Recurring Nightmare. Cheating this into play early isn’t worth it at all because it has such a small body, plus your opponent probably won’t have anything worth stealing during the early game anyways. The fact that this basically only shines with Recurring Nightmare makes this way too narrow in my book. Also, why doesn't untap my lands!?
BLACK
Interesting one drop. Being scalable is nice late game, but having to commit 3 mana to pump him every turn seems like a drag. I think this is secretly a Rakdos card since you can pump him with burn. Being a knight is nice if you run History of Benalia. I’d be more interested in this card if it was a zombie.
Arguably the most broken card for 2HG ever printed and seems super fun in multiplayer cubes. I don’t think this gets there in 1v1 since your opponent is going to get to play their card first a vast majority of the time.
Wow, this card is so aptly named. Jokes aside, this Tarmogoyf wannabe doesn’t scale like Tarmogoyf does when it’s already been cast and it doesn’t even count your opponent’s graveyard.
7/6 for 2B that just so happens to be a zombie AND a dinsoaur. The discard every upkeep isn’t too steep of a drawback most of the time since you’ve probably emptied most of your hand in an aggro deck by then, plus it can be used as a discard outlet. Unlike most other ridiculous black stat monsters with drawbacks, Rotting Regisaur has zero evasion is a huge bummer. Turning the drawback into an advantage makes Rotting Regisaur pretty powerful, especially in Reanimator / Recurring Nightmare decks where it’s both a discard outlet and a back-up win condition. My opinion of this card was originally high due to the wow factor, then was low, but now I think it’s probably better / less than a trap that I thought it was a few days ago. Will probably test to see how it plays out.
This would’ve been cool if it had a generic landfall trigger rather than being picky with swamps, but even then I think it’d fall short. Being able to Shock Helix / draw 1 and lose 1 are very good options to have though.
Once I realized that the Cavalier cycle was probably going to be a bunch of 5-drops, I knew I we were going to be disappointed with the black one. Get rid of the sacrifice clause and make it 3BB and then this would actually look pretty attractive.
I immediately wrote this off at first glance until somebody brought up that you draw 8 cards if you Reanimate or Life // Death it. Being able to draw cards off fetchlands / shocklands is pretty cool, and if you got a lot of black mana you can just machine gun your opponent’s board. That being said, I think it’s really bad without Reanimate and Life // Death. It’s pretty awful with the other cheaty face type cards, especially without trample.
RED
Extremely narrow, but powerful in a Gruul Monsters type deck. Maybe one day we’ll have a “3 or more toughness matters” theme and this will be cubeable in 10 years. You heard it here first!
Protection from white means this gets around a lot of removal and blockers. If you’re looking for more red aggro 2-drops, this ain’t a bad option.
If you’re already running Mortarpod, this seems like a shoe-in. Passable if you’re not.
Definitely better than it looks at first glance, but still not sure how I feel about it. Her -3 is very simiilar to JVP's Snapcaster mode, which is really nice. I won't be surprised if people test this over Rabblemaster #4 or something. She’s definitely cubeable and won’t be surprised if people find success with her.
A 6/5 for 2RRR is a good rate and his abilities ain’t bad. It’s a shame that a card can have such great stats and so much text and still not make the cut. There’s so many red 5-cmc cards that have haste + flying for this to compete.
I like that she can both sweep or take out a big creature / planeswalker and be able to +2 really helps to keep her loyalty up to re-use those abilities. In terms of controlling the board, she has the most options out of any other 6-cmc walker, which I like. However, actually killing the opponent is a totally different story. Her +2 is inevitable, but sloooooow. If you're playing a big Chandra, you probably weren't spending a lot of time attacking your opponent beforehand.
This card is probably better than it looks at first glance, but being an extremely slow win condition makes her unattractive compared to Inferno Titan / Chandra, Flamecaller / Emissary of Grudges, and she isn't an archetype enabler like Wildfire / Burning of Xinye. I think Chandra is a pretty solid card. I’m probably going to pass on her for now due her mana cost / competition, but I look forward to playing her in other cubes.
No ETB trigger sucks, but that attack trigger is NASTY. I don’t think I’m in the market for this because of the lack of ETB, but this seems solid if you’re really into Shallow Grave / Goryo’s Vengeance type cards.
GREEN
Strictly better Kalonian Tusker if you’re in the market for those type of green cards.
Solid utility one-drop, especially if you’re into Titania / Gitrog Monster. Being able to tutor for Strip Mine is really cool. Personally I’m not in the market for this, but those pushing lands matters and / or playing Knight of the Reliquary will probably like this.
Decent mana dork for larger cubes.
Interesting grow type creature. Tokens are all over the place and this can get really big really fast, especially with double Deranged Hermit. I’m not in the market for this, but this is both a good payoff for tokens and +1/+1 counters matters.
When I first saw this card untranslated I was like “Oh great, it’s probably another bad hydra that scales”, but this is actually one of the better ones.
MODES (all have trample)
GG: 0/1 *womp womp*
1GG: ½ + fight or ⅔
2GG: ⅔ + fight or ⅘
3GG: ¾ + fight or 6/7
4GG: ⅘ + fight or 8/9
5GG: ⅚ + fight or 10/11
6GG: 6/7 + fight or 12/13
At ⅘ trample or a slightly bigger Ravenous Redcap is pretty serviceable at 2GG. The stats start to really payoff at 3GG. 1GG is pretty anemic, but being green it’s pretty easy to snipe a pesky one toughness like Mother of Runes / Dark Confidant / Pack Rat early before they get out of hand. Being green is always a plus for Natural Order fodder (useless with Green Sun’s Zenith though) and this being fetchable with Recruiters makes this quite the versatile card.
A nice Master of the Wild Hunt / Yeva, Nature’s Herald hybrid. Flash makes it a nice combat trick and also helps dodge / bait counterspells. His ability creates 3/3s as long as long as you still have ambusher. The token generation being conditional hurts, but at least it guarantees you gas if you’re topdecking blanks or are doing something else with your mana like attacking with manlands. My only real gripe with this card is that the only other things its anthem pumps in my cube are tokens from Master of the Wild Hunt / Garuk Relentless / Sword of Body and Mind. Green doesn’t exactly have a great selection of 4-cmc creatures, so I can see a lot of people being interested in this card. Hopefully we get more wolves / werewolves!
Pseudo Thornling that’s cheaper and has a bigger body upfront. Having haste and trample is nice late game. I’d be more interested in this card if Nightpack Ambusher / Voracious Hydra weren’t eating its lunch.
Not bad, but her first two abilities being reliant on you having creatures in play is a huge bummer on top of her ultimate being pretty awful in limited. I can see people being interested in Vivien for +1/+1 counters matters.
Mini Primeval Titan with a death trigger….? Trample would have gone a long way, but even then there’s just too much competition for green 5-cmc cards.
Instant speed is very nice, but not being a creature or a threat by itself like Thalia’s Lancers really hurts.
Huge stats and can play offense and defense at the same time. The fight trigger is a nice way to punish removal, especially since the best case scenario for the opponent is a trade because Gargos basically only can be killed in a fight by deathtouch creatures. This is essentially green Sun Titan, but worse IMO because Sun Titan’s trigger has more value Curving Gargos into Hydroid Krasis is pretty hot though.
***OTHER***
Mini Purphoros for half the cost. Relevant zombie and knight creature types are nice. This is a decent tokens payoff. Having menace or first strike would have been nice. I can see people being interested in this for both tokens / aristocrats.
It’s a fine creature for UR tempo, haste + evasion is very aggressive for 2 mana. Too bad this isn’t a Boros card.
*RW 2-DROP*
Reminds me a lot of Kari Zev, but is worse overall. This really needed a 2nd power either on the creature or the token. The token staying around is good, but I think it’s still too slow to snowball with it.
Kind of Kari Zev-ish. While not as good, the token actually sticking around is nice. This really needed a second power on either the token or the creature itself.
Sweet tempo Shadowmage Infiltrator type card. It’s great that this has both an ETB / combat damage to a player trigger on top of being a discard outlet. Being a zombie is always a nice bonus too. I’m not really in the market for Shadowmage Infiltrator type cards myself, but I can see this being an attractive option for a lot of other cubes.
The only 3-color card worth looking at (which isn’t saying much). To me this is just a 3-color Emeria Angel, so hard pass for me.
An almost always strictly better Voltaic Key and is a staple if you support Time Vault infinites. Being able to make your giant Karn / Urza golems or Wurmcoil Engines unblockable is always cool too.
I’ve always wanted a colorless Horizon Canopy, and this is almost there? Not quite though since it’s not very friendly with aggro decks that don’t play a lot of land. Has potential if you support colorless matters.
This card is pretty bad. You’d have to be 4-5 colors to even reliably have 7 unique lands just to even trigger this, and fetchlands really don’t help this count much. The irony is that 4-5 color decks really don’t want to play a land that ETBS tapped and only taps for colorless. Avoid this card like the plague unless you support Scapeshift or something.
Apparently we can throw hexproof on Lotus Vale and get around the reserved list. That being said, I don’t think this card is particularly useful and seems pretty narrow unless you’re really into Titania / Gitrog Monster.
FINAL TAKES
- Super “meh” set to me, especially following up War of the Spark and Modern Horizons. tribal theme / heavy mono colored set full of sideboard hate cards for Standard / Modern isn’t exactly a winning formula for cube. At least it’ll be a nice break for our wallets.
- I like the concept and design of the cavalier cycle and was hoping we’d see a 5-cmc version of the titan cycle. Unfortunately these were overall worse than even the gearhulk cycle, which is a shame because black and blue really could’ve used a slam dunk at the 5-cmc creature slot.
- Most overhyped card to me is probably Mu Yanling. I think she’s a good card, but I don’t think she’ll play out as well as people are hyping her up.
- I think the card that is being most underestimated is Drawn from Dreams. Not being an instant isn’t a dealbreaker, and I think 2UU is an acceptable rate for how powerful Dig Through Time is. I’d recommend anybody cubing Treasure Cruise / Ancestral Visions / Deep Analysis to at least try and test Drawn from Dreams in place of one of those cards.
Not the greatest hate bear in the world, but graveyard hate is always nice. Probably a decent option for large cubes.
A creature version that’s in-between Lingering Souls and Midnight Haunting. Not terribly exciting, but being a creature generally has more benefits than being a sorcery since there are more synergies to be had. Being able to exile a creature is a nice option to have. While white has a ton of great 3-cmc cards, most of them are 1WW. I’ll probably give this a test at 540 to bolster tokens / aristocrats strategies.
Oh god, another planeswalker for 2WW. Now that we got that out of our system, Ajani is what Gideon, Ally of Zendikar would have been if he was actually balanced. That being said, this Ajani is the #4 planeswalker in the 4-cmc white slot at best, and is a farcry from Elspeth / Gideon / Serra.
I’m not the biggest fan of Beast Within effects in cube. In EDH, nobody cares about a 3/3 since there’s multiple players starting at 40 life, but a 3/3 is a legitimate threat in limited. The death trigger also seems narrow. If I want removal on a 5-drop that has value when it dies I’d rather just play Angel of Sanctions.
Huge lifelink flying body is nice, but she seems narrow even for a flyers payoff. Her cost reduction seems a bit win more because if I have four flyers lying around I’m probably just attacking.
BLUE
Best version of Flying Men / Azure Mage? Seems great if you’re really into pushing blue tempo.
This seems really pushed for a common in limited. Seems middling for cube unless you’re really pushing blue tempo.
Interesting design. She reminds me of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in the sense that you can only use her minus ability until you've activated her plus ability at least once and that her minus ability creates a creature. I do like Mu Yanling over Ashiok since her plus ability actually has an impact on the board and she has a set rate of a 4/4 flyer on her minus ability.
As far as 3-cmc blue planeswalkers goes, I think Jace and Narset have broader applications. She's pretty bad if all you do is get to activate her plus ability before she dies. Might give her a spin if I can find a cut, but I'm not too optimistic about her in general. I see a lot of people compare her to Serra, but at least Serra guarantees a 4/4 flyer with vigilance. After testing Serra extensively, she almost always dies the following turn, which probably means there’s going to be a lot of scenarios where Mu Yanling can’t even generate a flyer.
For those who wants to get their Exodia on, this is the card for you.
Dig Through Time at a fixed rate of 2UU at sorcery speed. It's definitely no Fact or Fiction, but this is more reliable than Treasure Cruise / Dig Through Time in the early / mid game.
Because Drawn from Dreams is a sorcery, it should be competing with Treasure Cruise / Deep Analysis, not Fact or Fiction / Dig Through Time. Being able to cast this during the development phase of a game on turn 3-4 where Treasure Cruise / Dig Through Time typically can't be cast is pretty big. Obviously the delve spells are better late game because you cast them + easily play more threats on the same turn. Late game this still might have the advantage over Treasure Cruise just because at that point I'm more interested in digging for very specific cards rather than gaining raw card advantage.
Personally I think this card is being underestimated because it’s being compared to Dig Through Time, but this competes for the Treasure Cruise / Deep Analysis slot, IMO. It really drives me crazy that I can’t cast Treasure Cruise / Dig Through Time on turn 3 or 4, especially off a mana rock. This digs for a lot of bombs / combo pieces like Tinker / Oath of Druids / Moat or can help set up your big Upheaval / Wildfire plays. I’m probably going to give this a test over Treasure Cruise, which I’ve always been medium on, plus it’s better to have less delve spells competing for graveyard fodder.
The best of the cavalier cycle, IMO. 5/5 flying with ETB Brainstorm is nice for a Baneslayer type card, and the death trigger of shuffle itself into the library / scry 2 is a great way to not draw useless lands late game. This competes with Meloku in CMC and Kefnet in function. I like Meloku more since he can just take over the game once you untap with him, and Kefnet being cheaper and having a better recursive option is more attractive to me than the 2UUU cost, but the guaranteed value is really nice. This reminds me a lot of Doom Whisperer, but 6/6 flying and trample is huge on top of 3BB over 2UUU. I might give this a test if I can find a cut, but it won’t be at the expense of Meloku / Kefnet.
This being an instant is really nice. Being able to swing with an army of Wurmcoil Engines is also pretty cool. A strong card in its own right, my only complaint is the lack of great artifacts to copy and the steep competition in blue in general.
Being able to steal something and your opponent not being able to blow something up to get their permanent back is very powerful. Unfortunately, 7-mana is too steep of a price for this and is only really good with Recurring Nightmare. Cheating this into play early isn’t worth it at all because it has such a small body, plus your opponent probably won’t have anything worth stealing during the early game anyways. The fact that this basically only shines with Recurring Nightmare makes this way too narrow in my book. Also, why doesn't untap my lands!?
BLACK
Interesting one drop. Being scalable is nice late game, but having to commit 3 mana to pump him every turn seems like a drag. I think this is secretly a Rakdos card since you can pump him with burn. Being a knight is nice if you run History of Benalia. I’d be more interested in this card if it was a zombie.
Arguably the most broken card for 2HG ever printed and seems super fun in multiplayer cubes. I don’t think this gets there in 1v1 since your opponent is going to get to play their card first a vast majority of the time.
Wow, this card is so aptly named. Jokes aside, this Tarmogoyf wannabe doesn’t scale like Tarmogoyf does when it’s already been cast and it doesn’t even count your opponent’s graveyard.
7/6 for 2B that just so happens to be a zombie AND a dinsoaur. The discard every upkeep isn’t too steep of a drawback most of the time since you’ve probably emptied most of your hand in an aggro deck by then, plus it can be used as a discard outlet. Unlike most other ridiculous black stat monsters with drawbacks, Rotting Regisaur has zero evasion is a huge bummer. Turning the drawback into an advantage makes Rotting Regisaur pretty powerful, especially in Reanimator / Recurring Nightmare decks where it’s both a discard outlet and a back-up win condition. My opinion of this card was originally high due to the wow factor, then was low, but now I think it’s probably better / less than a trap that I thought it was a few days ago. Will probably test to see how it plays out.
This would’ve been cool if it had a generic landfall trigger rather than being picky with swamps, but even then I think it’d fall short. Being able to Shock Helix / draw 1 and lose 1 are very good options to have though.
Once I realized that the Cavalier cycle was probably going to be a bunch of 5-drops, I knew I we were going to be disappointed with the black one. Get rid of the sacrifice clause and make it 3BB and then this would actually look pretty attractive.
I immediately wrote this off at first glance until somebody brought up that you draw 8 cards if you Reanimate or Life // Death it. Being able to draw cards off fetchlands / shocklands is pretty cool, and if you got a lot of black mana you can just machine gun your opponent’s board. That being said, I think it’s really bad without Reanimate and Life // Death. It’s pretty awful with the other cheaty face type cards, especially without trample.
RED
Extremely narrow, but powerful in a Gruul Monsters type deck. Maybe one day we’ll have a “3 or more toughness matters” theme and this will be cubeable in 10 years. You heard it here first!
Protection from white means this gets around a lot of removal and blockers. If you’re looking for more red aggro 2-drops, this ain’t a bad option.
If you’re already running Mortarpod, this seems like a shoe-in. Passable if you’re not.
Definitely better than it looks at first glance, but still not sure how I feel about it. Her -3 is very simiilar to JVP's Snapcaster mode, which is really nice. I won't be surprised if people test this over Rabblemaster #4 or something. She’s definitely cubeable and won’t be surprised if people find success with her.
A 6/5 for 2RRR is a good rate and his abilities ain’t bad. It’s a shame that a card can have such great stats and so much text and still not make the cut. There’s so many red 5-cmc cards that have haste + flying for this to compete.
I like that she can both sweep or take out a big creature / planeswalker and be able to +2 really helps to keep her loyalty up to re-use those abilities. In terms of controlling the board, she has the most options out of any other 6-cmc walker, which I like. However, actually killing the opponent is a totally different story. Her +2 is inevitable, but sloooooow. If you're playing a big Chandra, you probably weren't spending a lot of time attacking your opponent beforehand.
This card is probably better than it looks at first glance, but being an extremely slow win condition makes her unattractive compared to Inferno Titan / Chandra, Flamecaller / Emissary of Grudges, and she isn't an archetype enabler like Wildfire / Burning of Xinye. I think Chandra is a pretty solid card. I’m probably going to pass on her for now due her mana cost / competition, but I look forward to playing her in other cubes.
No ETB trigger sucks, but that attack trigger is NASTY. I don’t think I’m in the market for this because of the lack of ETB, but this seems solid if you’re really into Shallow Grave / Goryo’s Vengeance type cards.
GREEN
Strictly better Kalonian Tusker if you’re in the market for those type of green cards.
Solid utility one-drop, especially if you’re into Titania / Gitrog Monster. Being able to tutor for Strip Mine is really cool. Personally I’m not in the market for this, but those pushing lands matters and / or playing Knight of the Reliquary will probably like this.
Decent mana dork for larger cubes.
Interesting grow type creature. Tokens are all over the place and this can get really big really fast, especially with double Deranged Hermit. I’m not in the market for this, but this is both a good payoff for tokens and +1/+1 counters matters.
When I first saw this card untranslated I was like “Oh great, it’s probably another bad hydra that scales”, but this is actually one of the better ones.
MODES (all have trample)
GG: 0/1 *womp womp*
1GG: ½ + fight or ⅔
2GG: ⅔ + fight or ⅘
3GG: ¾ + fight or 6/7
4GG: ⅘ + fight or 8/9
5GG: ⅚ + fight or 10/11
6GG: 6/7 + fight or 12/13
At ⅘ trample or a slightly bigger Ravenous Redcap is pretty serviceable at 2GG. The stats start to really payoff at 3GG. 1GG is pretty anemic, but being green it’s pretty easy to snipe a pesky one toughness like Mother of Runes / Dark Confidant / Pack Rat early before they get out of hand. Being green is always a plus for Natural Order fodder (useless with Green Sun’s Zenith though) and this being fetchable with Recruiters makes this quite the versatile card.
A nice Master of the Wild Hunt / Yeva, Nature’s Herald hybrid. Flash makes it a nice combat trick and also helps dodge / bait counterspells. His ability creates 3/3s as long as long as you still have ambusher. The token generation being conditional hurts, but at least it guarantees you gas if you’re topdecking blanks or are doing something else with your mana like attacking with manlands. My only real gripe with this card is that the only other things its anthem pumps in my cube are tokens from Master of the Wild Hunt / Garuk Relentless / Sword of Body and Mind. Green doesn’t exactly have a great selection of 4-cmc creatures, so I can see a lot of people being interested in this card. Hopefully we get more wolves / werewolves!
Pseudo Thornling that’s cheaper and has a bigger body upfront. Having haste and trample is nice late game. I’d be more interested in this card if Nightpack Ambusher / Voracious Hydra weren’t eating its lunch.
Not bad, but her first two abilities being reliant on you having creatures in play is a huge bummer on top of her ultimate being pretty awful in limited. I can see people being interested in Vivien for +1/+1 counters matters.
Mini Primeval Titan with a death trigger….? Trample would have gone a long way, but even then there’s just too much competition for green 5-cmc cards.
Instant speed is very nice, but not being a creature or a threat by itself like Thalia’s Lancers really hurts.
Huge stats and can play offense and defense at the same time. The fight trigger is a nice way to punish removal, especially since the best case scenario for the opponent is a trade because Gargos basically only can be killed in a fight by deathtouch creatures. This is essentially green Sun Titan, but worse IMO because Sun Titan’s trigger has more value Curving Gargos into Hydroid Krasis is pretty hot though.
***OTHER***
Mini Purphoros for half the cost. Relevant zombie and knight creature types are nice. This is a decent tokens payoff. Having menace or first strike would have been nice. I can see people being interested in this for both tokens / aristocrats.
It’s a fine creature for UR tempo, haste + evasion is very aggressive for 2 mana. Too bad this isn’t a Boros card.
*RW 2-DROP*
Reminds me a lot of Kari Zev, but is worse overall. This really needed a 2nd power either on the creature or the token. The token staying around is good, but I think it’s still too slow to snowball with it.
Kind of Kari Zev-ish. While not as good, the token actually sticking around is nice. This really needed a second power on either the token or the creature itself.
Sweet tempo Shadowmage Infiltrator type card. It’s great that this has both an ETB / combat damage to a player trigger on top of being a discard outlet. Being a zombie is always a nice bonus too. I’m not really in the market for Shadowmage Infiltrator type cards myself, but I can see this being an attractive option for a lot of other cubes.
The only 3-color card worth looking at (which isn’t saying much). To me this is just a 3-color Emeria Angel, so hard pass for me.
An almost always strictly better Voltaic Key and is a staple if you support Time Vault infinites. Being able to make your giant Karn / Urza golems or Wurmcoil Engines unblockable is always cool too.
I’ve always wanted a colorless Horizon Canopy, and this is almost there? Not quite though since it’s not very friendly with aggro decks that don’t play a lot of land. Has potential if you support colorless matters.
This card is pretty bad. You’d have to be 4-5 colors to even reliably have 7 unique lands just to even trigger this, and fetchlands really don’t help this count much. The irony is that 4-5 color decks really don’t want to play a land that ETBS tapped and only taps for colorless. Avoid this card like the plague unless you support Scapeshift or something.
Apparently we can throw hexproof on Lotus Vale and get around the reserved list. That being said, I don’t think this card is particularly useful and seems pretty narrow unless you’re really into Titania / Gitrog Monster.
FINAL TAKES
- Super “meh” set to me, especially following up War of the Spark and Modern Horizons. tribal theme / heavy mono colored set full of sideboard hate cards for Standard / Modern isn’t exactly a winning formula for cube. At least it’ll be a nice break for our wallets.
- I like the concept and design of the cavalier cycle and was hoping we’d see a 5-cmc version of the titan cycle. Unfortunately these were overall worse than even the gearhulk cycle, which is a shame because black and blue really could’ve used a slam dunk at the 5-cmc creature slot.
- Most overhyped card to me is probably Mu Yanling. I think she’s a good card, but I don’t think she’ll play out as well as people are hyping her up.
- I think the card that is being most underestimated is Drawn from Dreams. Not being an instant isn’t a dealbreaker, and I think 2UU is an acceptable rate for how powerful Dig Through Time is. I’d recommend anybody cubing Treasure Cruise / Ancestral Visions / Deep Analysis to at least try and test Drawn from Dreams in place of one of those cards.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra