This is my 38th installment of the "top 20" set (P)review 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.
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is a step in a new direction for Magic. It introduces a main-line, Standard-legal set that ventures (no pun intended) into a non-Magic universe. For folks that grew up with Dungeons & Dragons, there’s a lot of fun and flavorful cards in this set that try and capture the essence of the form and function of that game. There are dungeons to explore and D20s to roll as D&D and Magic: The Gathering converge. If you love the Forgotten Realms lore, this set will be extra enjoyable. If D&D was never something that interested you, the set still feels enough like regular Magic that you shouldn’t be too disconnected from the experience. There are some good cards for cubes in this set too, even if the volume of them and excitement surrounding them feels a bit flattened after the blockbuster cube set that Modern Horizons 2 was.
What I Like: I remember a time where Rorix Bladewing was an exciting card. 6 power, flying, and haste for 6 mana hits hard and represents a fast, evasive clock. Add on Firebreathing to add extra pressure on future turns (and/or when flooded on mana) and the clock speeds up even more. On top of that, the card has a fun trigger of dealing 20 damage directly once the ability helps it reach 20 power! The last ability might not sound like much, but in cubes supporting super-ramp with cards like Mana Flare you might be able to get some direct kills on curve with the ability. Most importantly, in comparison to other 6cc options playing the role of “finisher”, this Dragon can’t be countered. So against control decks loaded with countermagic, you can reliably resolve this as a threat to close out games.
What I Don't Like: Surprisingly enough, this may only be the 3rd best red 6cc creature. I still like Inferno Titan more for several reasons. It guarantees at least an Arc Lightning worth of value even in the face of instant-speed removal, it can kill creatures and planeswalkers without even having to enter the red zone, it is the much more impactful card when paired with Sneak Attack effects or when abused as an ETB threat, and it doesn’t get stonewalled by chump-blocking tokens. Even without haste, Titan keeps up on damage once they’ve both swing twice, and actually outpaces the Dragon if there’s a 3rd swing. Another option that this Dragon competes against is Emissary of Grudges which I also like more because it’s easier to splash and has an ability that protects it from removal. Both the Emissary and this Dragon have a major flaw that the Titan doesn’t share, and that’s a weakness to flying tokens. There are a lot of Spirits and Thopters and the like buzzing around, and both of the flying threats get straight invalidated by flying blockers.
Verdict: This creature is a contender for one of the scariest top-end finishers that red can play to end games against control. But there’s only so many 6cc creatures that red is willing to play. Most cubes won’t be able to find room for a 2nd (or 3rd) 6cc red creature, but if you’re currently unhappy with the options that are available or if you want to try out something new, this creature is certainly a competitive option.
What I Like: 3 power, flash, and vigilance for 3 mana isn’t a bad baseline at all. And if you’re playing a deck where keeping up the three mana doesn’t telegraph your actions too much, this is a nice, clean answer to your opponent’s removal. Flash this creature in, save your threat(s) from removal, untap, and bash for lots. Easy recipe, and a pretty simple play pattern.
What I Don't Like: This card reminds me a bit of Stonecloaker. There’s obviously some important differences, but I actually think I prefer the ‘cloaker. It has flying, it has a splashable casting cost, it allows me to abuse ETB triggers, and it provides some incidental graveyard hate. And to be honest, ‘cloaker is pretty far down on my list of cards I want to cube at the moment, because white’s 3cc creature slot is pretty stacked with good options.
Verdict: If you support a flash theme where leaving the mana up won’t set off alarms (or more importantly, where you’ll have other things to do with your mana if the opponent doesn’t give you a reason to play Guardian) I think the card can be quite playable. But without a flash theme, there are just going to be too many cases where it’s run out as a random 3-drop because you were forced to play it in order to avoid conceding too much tempo.
What I Like: A 3-power flying creature that doesn’t ever really go away can be a scary threat. Every time this creature dies, you exile it alongside another card and you have the option of replaying this creature or playing the other card. So if you want to keep yourself in a 3cc 3-power flying threat, you can elect to do so. Good reach and inevitability against opponent’s that can’t get rid of it.
What I Don't Like: The red 3cc creature slot is stacked in red, and in comparison to Phoenix of Ash I’m not sure this card gets there. The Skull’s lack of Haste puts it behind in damage, and the Escape on the Phoenix gives it the advantage of re-casting it at any time instead of being forced to do it the turn after it dies.
Verdict: Cubes looking for something different than the Rabblemaster variants that want a second flying red 3-drop should take a close look at Flameskull. But I think this will settle on the outside looking in for most cubes.
In the cube, the mechanic feels a bit like Monarch, in that it requires the test from matching tokens to know what it is and how it works.
Basically, if you’re not in a dungeon and you Venture, you move into the top room of one of these dungeons (of your choice):
Once you’re in a dungeon, each time you venture you move down a room until you get to the bottom, collecting triggers as you go. Once you explore the last room, you collect that trigger and the dungeon goes away, and you’ve “completed” the dungeon. You can re-explore that same dungeon with future Venture cards or explore a different dungeon.
So every card that has “Venture” on it adds the abilities of those dungeons to themselves, making the mechanic deep and complex. Each dungeon shines in different situations, making it difficult to evaluate all the different things you can do with Venture without seeing it in action.
For the cube, I think the best Venture effects are going to be ones that can Venture repeatedly and reliably, so you can enter and subsequently complete dungeons with a single card. Cobbling together enough Venture triggers from 1-shot effects is too difficult for our format, so being able to repeatedly Venture is important.
What I Like: A 2-power 2-drop with evasion that generates repeatable value every turn is very solid. True unblockability is pretty rare, and if you can protect this with countermagic and maybe enhance its damage output in another way, it can be a scary threat. The Venture mechanic is a lot to explore. There are multiple trigger options and multiple paths to investigate, and the value of those dungeons changes with the game state. This can be a card that scrys, makes chump-blockers, grows, and draws cards if you use the Lost Cave’s left path. It can be an aggressive, disruptive element that makes a 4/4 body if you follow the Tomb’s left path. There are so many different things to do that it’s hard to get a complete evaluation of Venture and the dungeon system without seeing it in action.
What I Don't Like: Attacking alone is not something I want most of my tempo-based threats to have to be doing, and if this card simply had flying instead, I think I would’ve liked it a lot more.
Verdict: Cubes that want to explore the Dungeon mechanic with a few different options should take a close look at the Malison, because it’s one of the most consistent repeatable ways to Venture that we’ll have access to in the cube. But for others, I think this card will be a miss because of the restrictive nature of the evasion, the fragility of the body, and the pace of the Venture process. I would likely want to test this out in a 720+ card list, but I don’t think it’s ultimately going to crack into too many smaller cubes.
What I Like: This is red’s first take on an Elspeth variant. It makes bodies every turn, and those creatures can ping any target they want when they die. Zariel defends itself while being able to use the death triggers to threaten the board. The {+1} ability is not something that’s going to be exciting for every deck, but in decks loaded with army-in-a-can kinds of cards, it can represent a lot of additional damage. Curving from this card into a Deranged Hermit for example allows you to attack for 14 with haste on T5. Rather than being a ‘walker that’s good in everything, Zariel is a ‘walker that will shine in specific builds. In token decks, Fires shells, and in Aristocrats decks, I think this ‘walker can really shine.
What I Don't Like: The {+1} is lackluster on a lot of boards, and the tokens are relatively low impact at the time of the game Zariel will be churning them out. I think that the Devil tokens needed to be created off of a {+1} in order for this to shine outside of the specific shells that can maximize its abilities.
Verdict: If your cube supports Tokens decks in red, Fires-esque shells, and has lots of sacrifice outlets floating around, I think Zariel might be worth a close look. I know I supported those kinds of decks when my cube was bigger, and in that configuration, I’d be looking to test this out. In a 630-720+ card cube supporting those three decktypes I think this is a worthwhile inclusion.
What I Like: I thought this card might have some Cube potential and I saw Zolthux post about it on Twitter, pointing out that it has Blade Splicer stats with some additional upsides. And I agree. You get 4 power and multiple bodies for 3 mana, including at least some immediate pressure since one of the bodies has haste. Minsc is also a great topdeck because you can pump the haste body the turn it resolves and get in for extra damage. It hits pretty hard after you can start funneling your mana sink into a trampling threat. But I also noticed that the ability can be activated for 0, allowing Minsc to function as a sacrifice outlet of sorts, and it can allow your Persist combo decks to go infinite. Pretty good all-around value and versatility for a 3cc card.
What I Don't Like: The card is 3 colors, so outside of cubes that break singleton for max dual/fetch, the mana is somewhat prohibitive. Also, the structure is odd in comparison to Splicer. The bigger body is the one that needs to be abused, so it can’t be grabbed by Recruiters, Alesha or ‘Lark. And the EBT trigger is weak and hard to abuse; the token is legendary so you can’t stack up value by flickering Minsc, and the payoff is only a 1/1 when you reset it (unlike Splicer which is super easy to abuse and each subsequent EBT trigger provides you with an extra 3/3).
Verdict: An awesome card in terms of flavor …I mean, who doesn’t want to attack with Legendary Hamsters? It’s cost efficient if your cube can handle the mana, and it’s both efficient on-curve and when you’re looking to funnel mana into something later on. If your cube is structured in a way where you have room for Naya gold cards (or if you support the Persist combo) I would give this card a shot.
What I Like: This is a good stat monster. 3-power, 2-mana, and has a relevant creature type. It exiles creatures it kills and gives you 2/2 Zombies when that happens. The opponent isn’t going to want to give you free Zombies, so the ability will function as a pseudo-evasion of sorts since they won’t be willing to trade.
What I Don't Like: The ability lends itself to perform well on defense, and the creature unfortunately enters the battlefield tapped. Meaning this will simply function as an attacking creature with “evasion” that’s only really evasion if the opponent would have to trade in order to block it, and even then, it still does nothing against big blockers.
Verdict: The card seems fine. It’s a solid attacking 2-drop with good stats. It just doesn’t excite me because I can’t effectively use it to defend, which is where I think the ability looks most useful. So it winds up just being a 3-power 2-drop with a really “meh” form of unreliable evasion. If all you want it for is a 3-power Zombie for 2 mana, this card will be that for you, but it falls a bit short for me. I could see it being played in cubes in the 630+ range if Zombie aggro shenanigans are supported.
What I Like: A 2/2 for 2 that can grow itself (and/or other attackers) as the game progresses. As the Class levels up, it can also generate some late-game card advantage by casting creatures from the top of your library if you ever find yourself flooded out. I like how it keeps the body separated from the permanent providing the +1/+1 counters, so if the creature dies, you can still buff your other attacking creatures. Also, the enchantment can be picked up by Kor Skyfisher or flickered by Flickerwisp for extra 2/2 Wolf value!
What I Don't Like: The top-of-library creature casting is cute, but it’s expensive and unreliable. Which means this is going to be getting most of its value from the ETB trigger and the +1/+1 counter mode. In this mode, the card is basically a really bad Luminarch Aspirant. Aspirant distributes the first +1/+1 counter with “haste”, serves up a 3/3 attacking creature for half the overall mana investment, and can put its +1/+1 counters on non-attacking creatures so you can load up Hangarbacks and Ballistas and other creatures you don’t want to swing with. Ranger Class does a poor job of imitating Aspirant, and I fear it’s going to be used in that role more often than not.
Verdict: If you like to build attacking green decks, this card will be a solid role-player with the potential to generate some late-game card advantage if you get flooded. If you support green beatdown, it might be worth exploring for medium- to large-sized cubes in the 630 or 720 range.
What I Like: A 5-power flying creature, with flash, that can recur itself from the graveyard is no joke. With sacrifice outlets, cheap removal, and combat casualties, replaying this from the ‘graveyard shouldn’t be too hard for the right decks.
What I Don't Like: Unfortunately, entering tapped will prevent the Flash from allowing it to ambush creatures. And outside of decks that can freely put creatures into the ‘yard, 4 mana can be a lot if you also have to pay for the effect that kills the creature. Lastly, this isn’t built for creature-light decks. Control decks might be the ones that want a 5-power flying flash creature the most, but between entering tapped and being light on creature counts, they’re the decks least engineered to take advantage of this. Even in aristocrats shells with lots of token makers, cheap recursive creatures, and sacrifice outlets (the deck Ebondeath might really shine in) it might be the worst 4-drop in the deck. Unsure of where this will truly both fit and shine.
Verdict: Stats are too good to ignore, and it’s probably just a fine goodstuff card for medium- to large-sized cubes. I might be interesting in including this in smaller lists too, but I think the right number of token engines and sacrifice outlets would need to be there in order to make the recursion more consistent.
A 3-power 2-drop that can generate card advantage.
What I Like: This is a 3-power 2-drop, with vigilance, that can generate card advantage when it enters the battlefield. Knight of the White Orchid has a stronger enters the battlefield trigger, but the WW cost was really prohibitive. Any time you’re behind on resources you can get caught up, all while providing 3-power to the board at the same time. Makes for a decent trigger to abuse too, if you can Flicker this creature, since you can use it to rampant growth out a Plains every time you’re behind on lands.
What I Don't Like: Limiting to basic Plains, land entering tapped, and having 1 toughness without First Strike are all big strikes against this card.
Verdict: At the end of the day, this is still a 3-power 2-drop with a keyword that can generate card advantage. Worth a look if you’re looking to replace one of your more middling 2cc white creatures in 630+ card cubes.
What I Like: What separates the quality of Terror variants from one another is the quantity of their targets, and the quality of their targets. Right now, Go for the Throat and Heartless Act are the standard Doom Blade effects that most cubes play. Power Word Kill actually kills more creatures in the average cube than those spells do, unless you have an abnormally high tribal presence of one of those 4 creature types. So by the raw numbers, this kills the most creatures of any instant-speed 1B spell out there.
What I Don't Like: I’m not a fan of the Terror variants much these days. The black removal spells I play can either be played for 1 mana (or less), can attack multiple different permanent types, or they generate card advantage.
Verdict: If your cube plays Doom Blades, this should probably be the variant you run unless you have those tribes heavily represented and/or you don’t like the feel of cares-about-tribal kinds of removal. If I was going to add in a Terror variant, this would be one of the first ones I’d re-add.
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: A 7/7 is BIG for a creature land. It can attack into untapped Titan-sized blockers and really apply pressure through the red zone. And 7 damage is a lot. A 3-turn clock on a cleared out board is no joke. When slower blue midrange/ramp or control decks stabilize the game, this will be a good way to apply quick clock to close the game out. This will be a sweet target for Primeval Titan to grab.
What I Don't Like: 7 total mana is a big investment, making it hard to activate this land and keep mana up to protect it at the same time. And Ward 3 isn’t a particularly big hurdle for the opponent to leap when you’re at the stage of the game where you’re tapping 7 mana to crash in with a big monster. Plus, this creature can be stonewalled by a cheap token producer pretty easily since it’s both expensive and lacks evasion.
Verdict: Creature lands that enter untapped during the early parts of the game and tap for meaningful colored mana warrant testing. I expect this land to be serviceable, wanting evasion, an upgrade to hexproof, or a cheaper activation cost to make it really great. I’ll be testing this at 540 with a glass-half-full attitude, but don’t expect it to be amazing.
What I Like: For cubes that support black aggro with 2-power 1-drops that also have Gravecrawler hanging around, Dungeon Crawler functions as an aggro beater that’s a Zombie that doesn’t make you lose life. And if you have any Venture support in the cube, it may get some recursive value once in a blue moon.
What I Don't Like: Since the odds of ever recurring this via Venture are insanely low, this is essentially just a 1-toughness version of Diregraf Ghoul most of the time. I like it more than the options that cause me to lose life, since black is loaded with self-damaging effects as it is, but it’ll never be anything more than fringe-playable unless we see a lot more Venture in future sets.
Verdict: If you like 2-power 1-drop Zombies that don’t deal damage to you, this guy’s your man. If not, it won’t be of any interest to you unless you’re DEEP in the Venture plan. I’m begrudgingly playing this at 540 until it’s black’s turn to get a Ragavan.
What I Like: I liked the look of this card when I first read it, but I couldn’t put my finger on why until Patrunkenphat7 pointed out that it has a similar play pattern to Grafted Wargear. So I started comparing the numbers. On the play, if you play a land and a spell every turn, When you cast and equip this on T3 and strap it to your 1-drop or 2-drop, it’ll grant +3 damage. Next turn you untap and draw, attack for +4, and play land/spell or spell/spell post-combat and go back down to 2 cards. The following turn you’ll draw back up to 3 and get +3 damage again. So on the play, you’re +3, +4, +3 for a total of +10 damage in your first 3 swings, and that’s better than Wargear in terms of overall damage, without putting the creature at risk vs Shatter effects. If you’re on the draw, that changes to +4, +5, +4 …for a total of +13 damage, which is big game. This can be further increased by cantrips, draw spells/effects, and even by big draw-7 effects for massive damage. If you curved from a Preordain into a Baleful Strix into Hand of Vecna, you can bash with damn near a full hand every turn, which is stupid kinds of damage. Unlike Wargear, you don’t have to risk getting 2-for-1’d by your opponent’s Disenchant effects, and you can freely move Hand to another creature without sacrificing the first body. Plus, once the mana isn’t an issue anymore, you can always pay the 2 mana to equip Hand instead of paying life.
What I Don't Like: This card is weakened when you mulligan, it can be a bad topdeck if you were forced to play out all your other cards to stay in the game, and the impact can be lowered by your opponent’s discard effects. It also only triggers at the start of combat, so the toughness bonus isn’t live on your opponent’s turn for extra defense and survivability. Plus, the life you pay to equip on curve relegates this equipment to being pretty much an aggro exclusive card.
Verdict: I don’t think this is the second coming of Grafted Wargear because there are a lot of consistency issues. But I do think this is everything I ever wanted from Empyrial Armor and Empyrial Plate kinds of effects for this format, and I think it’s leagues better in aggro decks than most other 3+ mana pieces of equipment are. I’m testing this at 540 and I think it’s a safe bet there for being pretty good. I would play it in larger cubes for sure, and this card is my pick for the “sleeper” card that might wind up being really good even in small cubes.
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: As steve_man pointed out in the SCD, this land is essentially a color-shifted Lavaclaw Reaches into mono-green. You essentially pay XGG to Fireball the opponent or one of their ‘walkers on an open board. It doesn’t fix mana like Reaches does, but it enters untapped a lot, and unlike Reaches, Hydra’s toughness also gets the boost. So when this is set to X=3+, I can attack into my opponent’s 2-power creatures without risking my land in the process. This also looks like another great manland to tutor up with Primeval Titan.
What I Don't Like: I really wish this land had trample.
Verdict: Trample would’ve made this land a staple. As it is, I think it’s going to be good, but not broken or anything. Another card that needs close evaluation over a long timeline to analyze properly. I’m optimistically testing this out in my 540.
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: This land has evasion, so a single blocker can’t hold back your attack for 3. Making it decent for pressuring ‘walkers or forcing bad blocks. It also provides some maindeckable graveyard hate, which becomes more and more useful with each passing set. Historically, manlands with evasion have proven to be quite strong, and I expect this one to follow suit.
What I Don't Like: This land is the one where I felt like the one mana overpayment was the most punishing. Windows where Menace is great isn’t super reliable, so having to pay 5 total mana instead of 4 makes the window where the evasion is perfect a little smaller.
Verdict: I think the activation cost really needed to be 2B in order to have something really special here. As is, I think it’s good and I’m happy to test any evasive manland at 540 (especially one that often enters untapped). Perhaps one mana too expensive on the activation side from this being a really special land for smaller, tighter cube lists.
In the cube, the mechanic feels a bit like Monarch, in that it requires the test from matching tokens to know what it is and how it works.
Basically, if you’re not in a dungeon and you Venture, you move into the top room of one of these dungeons (of your choice):
Once you’re in a dungeon, each time you venture you move down a room until you get to the bottom, collecting triggers as you go. Once you explore the last room, you collect that trigger and the dungeon goes away, and you’ve “completed” the dungeon. You can re-explore that same dungeon with future Venture cards or explore a different dungeon.
So every card that has “Venture” on it adds the abilities of those dungeons to themselves, making the mechanic deep and complex. Each dungeon shines in different situations, making it difficult to evaluate all the different things you can do with Venture without seeing it in action.
For the cube, I think the best Venture effects are going to be ones that can Venture repeatedly and reliably, so you can enter and subsequently complete dungeons with a single card. Cobbling together enough Venture triggers from 1-shot effects is too difficult for our format, so being able to repeatedly Venture is important.
What I Like: I think Nadaar is the best dungeon Venturing card in the base set. It gives you both an ETB Venture trigger and attacking triggers as you continue to explore. Flickering Nadaar can move you further down the dungeon, and Nadaar also has a very nice reward for finishing a dungeon in the form of a static anthem effect. There are a ton of different options you can choose for ETB triggers, and then a bunch of paths you can take when Venturing into the various dungeons, so it’s really hard to know exactly how good this card will be until we see it in action. But just looking at one path of one dungeon (the left path of the Lost Mine) the play patterns are pretty strong. LucidVision compared Nadaar’s path down this dungeon to Brimaz, King of Oreskos and the results were surprising. On its own, Brimaz attacks for 4 -> 5 -> 6 for a total of 15 damage in its first 3 attacks. Nadaar attacks for 3 -> 5 -> 6 for a total of 14 damage. But since the anthem contributes to the damage, even a single other attacking creature makes Nadaar’s damage comparable to Brimaz’s damage. Brimaz has 4 toughness and makes more bodies, but Nadaar has a splashable mana cost, scries, draws a card, and anthem’s the rest of the board during that same timetable. Keep in mind that’s just ONE path of ONE dungeon …there are a lot of other things to choose from.
What I Don't Like: The learning curve will be steep, and there will be a lot of misplays when choosing dungeons and paths, and they might not always be obvious. Nadaar is weak to Bolts until can secure a +1/+1 counter for it (if that’s the dungeon you choose). But other than that, I’m pretty optimistic about Nadaar, and I think it’ll be quite good.
Verdict: I understand the hesitation some folks have with Venture and dungeons. The same reason a lot of folks don’t like Monarch. It’s more rules you have to know, and cards do things that aren’t printed on the card. And Venture is all of those problems dialed up to 11! But if you’re willing to deal with those issues, I think Nadaar is a good card and worth tinkering around with. Venture can do so many things that it’s going to take a long time to iron out all the different forms and functions it can serve. I’m playing this at 540 and expect it to play quite well. It likely warrants extensive testing at 450 even if it doesn’t stay forever, since there’s so much to unpack here.
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: This land eventually adds a lot of attacking power to the board over time. As steve_man pointed out, the damage is comparable to a mono-colored Raging Ravine in terms of activation cost vs damage output. But for aggressive decks, entering untapped is a big deal, as is being only one color. This land can help push the token support that red’s been driving, and actually has a cute interaction if you’re super flooded; you can activate the ability twice before you attack, and make two tokens instead of one when you swing.
What I Don't Like: Having no real evasion for the main body and having only 2 toughness is a drag. If the opponent has even one lowly bear out, there won’t be a clear path to apply meaningful pressure with this land. If anything holds it back, it’ll be that. The damage output on an open board is comparable to Ravine’s, but the toughness sure isn’t.
Verdict: 3 toughness, first strike …something to prevent it from dying to lions, pikers and bears in combat would’ve been really sweet. This is a great land as it is, and I expect it to play well at 450+, but it might’ve been a 360 staple with first strike or a 3rd point of toughness.
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: Flying is good on manlands. Celestial Colonnade is a really good land. By comparison, they both cost 6 total mana to activate, but Colonnade gets a 1-mana “discount” because of the vigilance. Cave only attacks for 3, but it’s only one color and will often enter untapped, so that’s really important to remember. In comparison to a smaller flying manland like Faerie Conclave, the 4 toughness is huge, keeping it out of Bolt range and ensuring it survives combat against those pesky 3-power flying threats that are all around in the cube. It also makes for a good defensive flying creature since it can stop most flying creatures in the cube. It can also attack into Thopters and Spirits and stuff; tokens that often stonewall Conclave. Shoehorning another win condition into Moat decks will be useful too.
What I Don't Like: This probably costs one mana too much to activate in comparison to Colonnade’s cost/stats.
Verdict: I think people are sleeping on this card. A mono-colored Colonnade variant sounds good to me, and overpaying by a mana or so in the activation cost is a small price to pay for a 3/4 flying manland that enters the battlefield untapped, taps for colored mana, and only requires one color of mana to activate. Happy to slam this into my 540. Would gladly test at 450. Might actually be good enough for some 360 cubes if slower white midrange/control decks are still viable and Moat is a thing. I think this is worth some extensive testing.
What I Like: In powered cubes, I’ll take as many flexible 1-mana answers to broken fast mana that they want to print for me. This reminds me a bit of Fatal Push, but it trades the Revolt trigger and the instant speed for the ability to hit all nonland permanent types instead of just creatures. It’s a good rate and a cheap spell, and it kills all artifacts, creatures, enchantments …and even a couple of planeswalkers! for one mana.
What I Don't Like: The effect can be undone by my opponent’s incidental Shatter effects, so if there’s something really important underneath it, the removal can be temporary. The value will also vary a lot from cube to cube. Low-to-the-ground powered cubes will have a lot more targets and get a lot more value from it than slower unpowered cubes without a ton of early must-kill targets will. And obviously, the mana value restriction will rear its ugly head from time to time and you might go without meaningful targets in some games.
Verdict: Tight powered cubes are loaded with a ton of premium early targets for Hole to snag. Unpowered cubes (especially ones without Signets and Talisman) might be lacking in a lot of targets that add the extra value to Hole and make it so valuable. I think this is a card that ranges from 360-450 for powered cubes, and 450-540 for unpowered cubes. But a 1cc answer to ~150+ cards in the cube (plus all tokens) is nothing to ignore. Card looks set to impress.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave comments!
Portable hole is really a great addition to the W color identity as a whole, and a much needed piece of removal to smooth out the curve of aggressive white removal IMO. I also agree that the fast man-lands are a great addition to many cubes (especially mine where I seed the packs with 3 lands in 16 card packs). Looking at this set though, I am really not liking the dungeon mechanic for cube for the sole reason that is requires a lot of extra carboard for the 1-3 cards that are worth even considering. However, I do agree that Nadaar might be worth testing, if for no other reason other than the sheer flexibility it offers for both Death and taxes and blink strategies (Ellywick might also be worth it for the similar reasons).
One card I am looking at is Monk of the Open Hand for white aggro decks since it fixes the problem of white aggro not being able to get over X/2's very well without trading or paying more mana than either red or black would have to do. This card seems like it could be the nuts for white aggro like Goblin Guide is for red aggro or Dark Confidant is for black aggro (obviously not as good as either since those two fit into more decks). Ebondeath is another card I think will play better than it first appears since it is probably the single greatest win condition for control decks while also being perfectly playable in other strategies as a backup plan or just as a good stat monster.
I understand why Venture feels not worth the effort, and some groups will elect to simply ignore it as a mechanic.
I considered Monk, but after playtesting Clarion Spirit a lot, I realized how inconsistent the double-spell turns can be. I would need Monk's triggers to be consistent, and consistent early in order for it to be great. In constructed, I'm sure it will be able to be a 3/3 or 4/4 with relative ease. In the cube, I don't know how often it'll be bashing for 2 on T2 in comparison to the other options white has.
1. Den of the Bugbear looks like a really amazing card - helps the red aggro to avoid flooding, while not hurting its early game. This feels like a slam dunk for me. The other manlands are an unfortunate wait and see - my cube is pretty tight right now and I really don't have any room.
2. Portable Hole - Another card I really like, helps the keep the speed of moxen/ 1 - drops in check for slower decks.
3. Zariel, Archduke of Avernus - In summary, this is a card I would love to have for a variety of reasons, but the problem is my red section is too tight right now and I cannot find a cut as of right now - either in red or the multi color sections.
Its just unfortunate that we just don't have any room for a lot of these powerful cards in the future. Some days I wish I had 3-4 more colorless slots for +1 Utility land, +2 Mana rocks and +1 Sword/ Equipment, but with all these packages, I guess you cannot have it all
Private Mod Note
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Good write up as usual. Agreed that people are generally sleeping on the manlands. I was disappointed when Zendikar Rising didn't have manlands, but these make up for it.
Good write up as usual. Agreed that people are generally sleeping on the manlands. I was disappointed when Zendikar Rising didn't have manlands, but these make up for it.
I think they're amazing but the problem is I just do not have any room for these cards.
I've recently tried a new green package and cut Cultivate and Kodama's Reach and realized I lacked the land ramp for cards like Palinchron/ Field of the Dead to be effective ..
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Good write up as usual. Agreed that people are generally sleeping on the manlands. I was disappointed when Zendikar Rising didn't have manlands, but these make up for it.
I think they're amazing but the problem is I just do not have any room for these cards.
I've recently tried a new green package and cut Cultivate and Kodama's Reach and realized I lacked the land ramp for cards like Palinchron/ Field of the Dead to be effective ..
Are you running the spell lands like Call of Emeria? In my opinion these manlands are going to be higher impact than several of the spell lands that I see in most cubes. Shatterskull Smashing feels like a staple to us, but other than that one I think some of the spell flip lands are lower impact.
1. Den of the Bugbear looks like a really amazing card - helps the red aggro to avoid flooding, while not hurting its early game. This feels like a slam dunk for me. The other manlands are an unfortunate wait and see - my cube is pretty tight right now and I really don't have any room.
2. Portable Hole - Another card I really like, helps the keep the speed of moxen/ 1 - drops in check for slower decks.
3. Zariel, Archduke of Avernus - In summary, this is a card I would love to have for a variety of reasons, but the problem is my red section is too tight right now and I cannot find a cut as of right now - either in red or the multi color sections.
Its just unfortunate that we just don't have any room for a lot of these powerful cards in the future. Some days I wish I had 3-4 more colorless slots for +1 Utility land, +2 Mana rocks and +1 Sword/ Equipment, but with all these packages, I guess you cannot have it all
You're welcome!
And yes, it can be really hard to find room for cuts, especially if combo and archetype packages run deep.
Good write up as usual. Agreed that people are generally sleeping on the manlands. I was disappointed when Zendikar Rising didn't have manlands, but these make up for it.
So far all of the manlands have been good in testing. Creature lands tend not to disappoint.
I'm glad you want me to write more, but no. I write an article for each standard-legal set that gets produced each year, and that's what I have the time to do.
Plus, it's more important to write articles for finding diamonds in the rough than it is to write an article about a bunch of obviously good cards.
As I said on Twitter, thanks as always for the excellent article. I find this set really lackluster for cube, but you found some hits for many cubists. I'll probably just run the Hole and watch the manlands.
Just wanted to echo everyone's sentiments here and say thanks for the article! I'm in the same boat as rantipole--going to add Portable Hole and watch the manlands. Really hoping that some of them prove to be 360-450 worthy for the long haul, though from your report that seems unlikely.
As I said on Twitter, thanks as always for the excellent article. I find this set really lackluster for cube, but you found some hits for many cubists. I'll probably just run the Hole and watch the manlands.
Cheers,
rant
That's probably fair. If you want another aggressive piece of equipment, keep Hand of Vecna in the back of your mind. Card's pretty good.
Just wanted to echo everyone's sentiments here and say thanks for the article! I'm in the same boat as rantipole--going to add Portable Hole and watch the manlands. Really hoping that some of them prove to be 360-450 worthy for the long haul, though from your report that seems unlikely.
I think the manlands are pretty good, so it might be worth testing them, even at smaller sizes, to see if they work for you guys.
With creature-based combo support, Awakening for sure. Without it, I think Hive is worth testing in that slot perhaps. Awakening is a sick topdeck in an aggro deck with a low curve, but Hive is just good in every black deck.
I'm only really confident about Portable Hole sticking around long term. But Wight has been really nice so far. It's easy to replace itself and then that's a huge amount of power for 2 mana. It can get chumped by bigger creatures but that's the case for most 2 drops. Even then there are removal/burn tricks to get a free 2/2 after the fact. Zombie typing is nice. It's no Dauthi Voidwalker, but not much is...
Ebondeath is interesting as an unusually fast clock on a 4 drop that is somewhat resilient, but expect may fall short eventually.
Nalaar is probably the best feature of the dungeon mechanic and I'll be testing him out too. As you say there are a lot of lines of play. I hope to see the mechanic revisited with new dungeons and cards in the future.
I am not super excited about any of the Manlands, of course they are going to be decent at worst!
Thanks for commenting! I also hope to see more dungeons in the future. Both Nadaar and the Malison can get better in the future if they add new dungeons to explore.
Thanks for commenting! I also hope to see more dungeons in the future. Both Nadaar and the Malison can get better in the future if they add new dungeons to explore.
I had really hoped the commander deck was gonna ship with a 4th (non-standard legal) dungeon, but maybe the way the comp rules are written venture cards can always go into any dungeon so that wasn't an option. Still gonna grab a malison to test as I think it's a close enough impression of Looter-Il-Kor to maybe get there.
This is my 38th installment of the "top 20" set (P)review 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.
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is a step in a new direction for Magic. It introduces a main-line, Standard-legal set that ventures (no pun intended) into a non-Magic universe. For folks that grew up with Dungeons & Dragons, there’s a lot of fun and flavorful cards in this set that try and capture the essence of the form and function of that game. There are dungeons to explore and D20s to roll as D&D and Magic: The Gathering converge. If you love the Forgotten Realms lore, this set will be extra enjoyable. If D&D was never something that interested you, the set still feels enough like regular Magic that you shouldn’t be too disconnected from the experience. There are some good cards for cubes in this set too, even if the volume of them and excitement surrounding them feels a bit flattened after the blockbuster cube set that Modern Horizons 2 was.
Without further ado, here’s the countdown!
Inferno of the Star Mounts
A big red finisher.
What I Like: I remember a time where Rorix Bladewing was an exciting card. 6 power, flying, and haste for 6 mana hits hard and represents a fast, evasive clock. Add on Firebreathing to add extra pressure on future turns (and/or when flooded on mana) and the clock speeds up even more. On top of that, the card has a fun trigger of dealing 20 damage directly once the ability helps it reach 20 power! The last ability might not sound like much, but in cubes supporting super-ramp with cards like Mana Flare you might be able to get some direct kills on curve with the ability. Most importantly, in comparison to other 6cc options playing the role of “finisher”, this Dragon can’t be countered. So against control decks loaded with countermagic, you can reliably resolve this as a threat to close out games.
What I Don't Like: Surprisingly enough, this may only be the 3rd best red 6cc creature. I still like Inferno Titan more for several reasons. It guarantees at least an Arc Lightning worth of value even in the face of instant-speed removal, it can kill creatures and planeswalkers without even having to enter the red zone, it is the much more impactful card when paired with Sneak Attack effects or when abused as an ETB threat, and it doesn’t get stonewalled by chump-blocking tokens. Even without haste, Titan keeps up on damage once they’ve both swing twice, and actually outpaces the Dragon if there’s a 3rd swing. Another option that this Dragon competes against is Emissary of Grudges which I also like more because it’s easier to splash and has an ability that protects it from removal. Both the Emissary and this Dragon have a major flaw that the Titan doesn’t share, and that’s a weakness to flying tokens. There are a lot of Spirits and Thopters and the like buzzing around, and both of the flying threats get straight invalidated by flying blockers.
Verdict: This creature is a contender for one of the scariest top-end finishers that red can play to end games against control. But there’s only so many 6cc creatures that red is willing to play. Most cubes won’t be able to find room for a 2nd (or 3rd) 6cc red creature, but if you’re currently unhappy with the options that are available or if you want to try out something new, this creature is certainly a competitive option.
Guardian of Faith
A defensive white threat.
What I Like: 3 power, flash, and vigilance for 3 mana isn’t a bad baseline at all. And if you’re playing a deck where keeping up the three mana doesn’t telegraph your actions too much, this is a nice, clean answer to your opponent’s removal. Flash this creature in, save your threat(s) from removal, untap, and bash for lots. Easy recipe, and a pretty simple play pattern.
What I Don't Like: This card reminds me a bit of Stonecloaker. There’s obviously some important differences, but I actually think I prefer the ‘cloaker. It has flying, it has a splashable casting cost, it allows me to abuse ETB triggers, and it provides some incidental graveyard hate. And to be honest, ‘cloaker is pretty far down on my list of cards I want to cube at the moment, because white’s 3cc creature slot is pretty stacked with good options.
Verdict: If you support a flash theme where leaving the mana up won’t set off alarms (or more importantly, where you’ll have other things to do with your mana if the opponent doesn’t give you a reason to play Guardian) I think the card can be quite playable. But without a flash theme, there are just going to be too many cases where it’s run out as a random 3-drop because you were forced to play it in order to avoid conceding too much tempo.
Flameskull
A resilient 3cc beater.
What I Like: A 3-power flying creature that doesn’t ever really go away can be a scary threat. Every time this creature dies, you exile it alongside another card and you have the option of replaying this creature or playing the other card. So if you want to keep yourself in a 3cc 3-power flying threat, you can elect to do so. Good reach and inevitability against opponent’s that can’t get rid of it.
What I Don't Like: The red 3cc creature slot is stacked in red, and in comparison to Phoenix of Ash I’m not sure this card gets there. The Skull’s lack of Haste puts it behind in damage, and the Escape on the Phoenix gives it the advantage of re-casting it at any time instead of being forced to do it the turn after it dies.
Verdict: Cubes looking for something different than the Rabblemaster variants that want a second flying red 3-drop should take a close look at Flameskull. But I think this will settle on the outside looking in for most cubes.
Yuan-Ti Malison
A 2cc dungeon exploring engine.
How do dungeons work, and what is Venture? Follow this link, and watch this video: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/adventures-forgotten-realms-mechanics-2021-07-02 .
In the cube, the mechanic feels a bit like Monarch, in that it requires the test from matching tokens to know what it is and how it works.
Basically, if you’re not in a dungeon and you Venture, you move into the top room of one of these dungeons (of your choice):
Once you’re in a dungeon, each time you venture you move down a room until you get to the bottom, collecting triggers as you go. Once you explore the last room, you collect that trigger and the dungeon goes away, and you’ve “completed” the dungeon. You can re-explore that same dungeon with future Venture cards or explore a different dungeon.
So every card that has “Venture” on it adds the abilities of those dungeons to themselves, making the mechanic deep and complex. Each dungeon shines in different situations, making it difficult to evaluate all the different things you can do with Venture without seeing it in action.
For the cube, I think the best Venture effects are going to be ones that can Venture repeatedly and reliably, so you can enter and subsequently complete dungeons with a single card. Cobbling together enough Venture triggers from 1-shot effects is too difficult for our format, so being able to repeatedly Venture is important.
What I Like: A 2-power 2-drop with evasion that generates repeatable value every turn is very solid. True unblockability is pretty rare, and if you can protect this with countermagic and maybe enhance its damage output in another way, it can be a scary threat. The Venture mechanic is a lot to explore. There are multiple trigger options and multiple paths to investigate, and the value of those dungeons changes with the game state. This can be a card that scrys, makes chump-blockers, grows, and draws cards if you use the Lost Cave’s left path. It can be an aggressive, disruptive element that makes a 4/4 body if you follow the Tomb’s left path. There are so many different things to do that it’s hard to get a complete evaluation of Venture and the dungeon system without seeing it in action.
What I Don't Like: Attacking alone is not something I want most of my tempo-based threats to have to be doing, and if this card simply had flying instead, I think I would’ve liked it a lot more.
Verdict: Cubes that want to explore the Dungeon mechanic with a few different options should take a close look at the Malison, because it’s one of the most consistent repeatable ways to Venture that we’ll have access to in the cube. But for others, I think this card will be a miss because of the restrictive nature of the evasion, the fragility of the body, and the pace of the Venture process. I would likely want to test this out in a 720+ card list, but I don’t think it’s ultimately going to crack into too many smaller cubes.
Zariel, Archduke of Avernus
A 4cc token-engine ‘walker.
What I Like: This is red’s first take on an Elspeth variant. It makes bodies every turn, and those creatures can ping any target they want when they die. Zariel defends itself while being able to use the death triggers to threaten the board. The {+1} ability is not something that’s going to be exciting for every deck, but in decks loaded with army-in-a-can kinds of cards, it can represent a lot of additional damage. Curving from this card into a Deranged Hermit for example allows you to attack for 14 with haste on T5. Rather than being a ‘walker that’s good in everything, Zariel is a ‘walker that will shine in specific builds. In token decks, Fires shells, and in Aristocrats decks, I think this ‘walker can really shine.
What I Don't Like: The {+1} is lackluster on a lot of boards, and the tokens are relatively low impact at the time of the game Zariel will be churning them out. I think that the Devil tokens needed to be created off of a {+1} in order for this to shine outside of the specific shells that can maximize its abilities.
Verdict: If your cube supports Tokens decks in red, Fires-esque shells, and has lots of sacrifice outlets floating around, I think Zariel might be worth a close look. I know I supported those kinds of decks when my cube was bigger, and in that configuration, I’d be looking to test this out. In a 630-720+ card cube supporting those three decktypes I think this is a worthwhile inclusion.
Minsc, Beloved Ranger
A fun Naya monster.
What I Like: I thought this card might have some Cube potential and I saw Zolthux post about it on Twitter, pointing out that it has Blade Splicer stats with some additional upsides. And I agree. You get 4 power and multiple bodies for 3 mana, including at least some immediate pressure since one of the bodies has haste. Minsc is also a great topdeck because you can pump the haste body the turn it resolves and get in for extra damage. It hits pretty hard after you can start funneling your mana sink into a trampling threat. But I also noticed that the ability can be activated for 0, allowing Minsc to function as a sacrifice outlet of sorts, and it can allow your Persist combo decks to go infinite. Pretty good all-around value and versatility for a 3cc card.
What I Don't Like: The card is 3 colors, so outside of cubes that break singleton for max dual/fetch, the mana is somewhat prohibitive. Also, the structure is odd in comparison to Splicer. The bigger body is the one that needs to be abused, so it can’t be grabbed by Recruiters, Alesha or ‘Lark. And the EBT trigger is weak and hard to abuse; the token is legendary so you can’t stack up value by flickering Minsc, and the payoff is only a 1/1 when you reset it (unlike Splicer which is super easy to abuse and each subsequent EBT trigger provides you with an extra 3/3).
Verdict: An awesome card in terms of flavor …I mean, who doesn’t want to attack with Legendary Hamsters? It’s cost efficient if your cube can handle the mana, and it’s both efficient on-curve and when you’re looking to funnel mana into something later on. If your cube is structured in a way where you have room for Naya gold cards (or if you support the Persist combo) I would give this card a shot.
Wight
A 3-power 2-drop Zombie.
What I Like: This is a good stat monster. 3-power, 2-mana, and has a relevant creature type. It exiles creatures it kills and gives you 2/2 Zombies when that happens. The opponent isn’t going to want to give you free Zombies, so the ability will function as a pseudo-evasion of sorts since they won’t be willing to trade.
What I Don't Like: The ability lends itself to perform well on defense, and the creature unfortunately enters the battlefield tapped. Meaning this will simply function as an attacking creature with “evasion” that’s only really evasion if the opponent would have to trade in order to block it, and even then, it still does nothing against big blockers.
Verdict: The card seems fine. It’s a solid attacking 2-drop with good stats. It just doesn’t excite me because I can’t effectively use it to defend, which is where I think the ability looks most useful. So it winds up just being a 3-power 2-drop with a really “meh” form of unreliable evasion. If all you want it for is a 3-power Zombie for 2 mana, this card will be that for you, but it falls a bit short for me. I could see it being played in cubes in the 630+ range if Zombie aggro shenanigans are supported.
Ranger Class
A growing green 2-drop.
What I Like: A 2/2 for 2 that can grow itself (and/or other attackers) as the game progresses. As the Class levels up, it can also generate some late-game card advantage by casting creatures from the top of your library if you ever find yourself flooded out. I like how it keeps the body separated from the permanent providing the +1/+1 counters, so if the creature dies, you can still buff your other attacking creatures. Also, the enchantment can be picked up by Kor Skyfisher or flickered by Flickerwisp for extra 2/2 Wolf value!
What I Don't Like: The top-of-library creature casting is cute, but it’s expensive and unreliable. Which means this is going to be getting most of its value from the ETB trigger and the +1/+1 counter mode. In this mode, the card is basically a really bad Luminarch Aspirant. Aspirant distributes the first +1/+1 counter with “haste”, serves up a 3/3 attacking creature for half the overall mana investment, and can put its +1/+1 counters on non-attacking creatures so you can load up Hangarbacks and Ballistas and other creatures you don’t want to swing with. Ranger Class does a poor job of imitating Aspirant, and I fear it’s going to be used in that role more often than not.
Verdict: If you like to build attacking green decks, this card will be a solid role-player with the potential to generate some late-game card advantage if you get flooded. If you support green beatdown, it might be worth exploring for medium- to large-sized cubes in the 630 or 720 range.
Ebondeath, Dracolich
A 5-power flying recursive threat!
What I Like: A 5-power flying creature, with flash, that can recur itself from the graveyard is no joke. With sacrifice outlets, cheap removal, and combat casualties, replaying this from the ‘graveyard shouldn’t be too hard for the right decks.
What I Don't Like: Unfortunately, entering tapped will prevent the Flash from allowing it to ambush creatures. And outside of decks that can freely put creatures into the ‘yard, 4 mana can be a lot if you also have to pay for the effect that kills the creature. Lastly, this isn’t built for creature-light decks. Control decks might be the ones that want a 5-power flying flash creature the most, but between entering tapped and being light on creature counts, they’re the decks least engineered to take advantage of this. Even in aristocrats shells with lots of token makers, cheap recursive creatures, and sacrifice outlets (the deck Ebondeath might really shine in) it might be the worst 4-drop in the deck. Unsure of where this will truly both fit and shine.
Verdict: Stats are too good to ignore, and it’s probably just a fine goodstuff card for medium- to large-sized cubes. I might be interesting in including this in smaller lists too, but I think the right number of token engines and sacrifice outlets would need to be there in order to make the recursion more consistent.
Loyal Warhound
A 3-power 2-drop that can generate card advantage.
What I Like: This is a 3-power 2-drop, with vigilance, that can generate card advantage when it enters the battlefield. Knight of the White Orchid has a stronger enters the battlefield trigger, but the WW cost was really prohibitive. Any time you’re behind on resources you can get caught up, all while providing 3-power to the board at the same time. Makes for a decent trigger to abuse too, if you can Flicker this creature, since you can use it to rampant growth out a Plains every time you’re behind on lands.
What I Don't Like: Limiting to basic Plains, land entering tapped, and having 1 toughness without First Strike are all big strikes against this card.
Verdict: At the end of the day, this is still a 3-power 2-drop with a keyword that can generate card advantage. Worth a look if you’re looking to replace one of your more middling 2cc white creatures in 630+ card cubes.
Power Word Kill
The new Terror variant.
What I Like: What separates the quality of Terror variants from one another is the quantity of their targets, and the quality of their targets. Right now, Go for the Throat and Heartless Act are the standard Doom Blade effects that most cubes play. Power Word Kill actually kills more creatures in the average cube than those spells do, unless you have an abnormally high tribal presence of one of those 4 creature types. So by the raw numbers, this kills the most creatures of any instant-speed 1B spell out there.
What I Don't Like: I’m not a fan of the Terror variants much these days. The black removal spells I play can either be played for 1 mana (or less), can attack multiple different permanent types, or they generate card advantage.
Verdict: If your cube plays Doom Blades, this should probably be the variant you run unless you have those tribes heavily represented and/or you don’t like the feel of cares-about-tribal kinds of removal. If I was going to add in a Terror variant, this would be one of the first ones I’d re-add.
Hall of Storm Giants
The blue fast manland!
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: A 7/7 is BIG for a creature land. It can attack into untapped Titan-sized blockers and really apply pressure through the red zone. And 7 damage is a lot. A 3-turn clock on a cleared out board is no joke. When slower blue midrange/ramp or control decks stabilize the game, this will be a good way to apply quick clock to close the game out. This will be a sweet target for Primeval Titan to grab.
What I Don't Like: 7 total mana is a big investment, making it hard to activate this land and keep mana up to protect it at the same time. And Ward 3 isn’t a particularly big hurdle for the opponent to leap when you’re at the stage of the game where you’re tapping 7 mana to crash in with a big monster. Plus, this creature can be stonewalled by a cheap token producer pretty easily since it’s both expensive and lacks evasion.
Verdict: Creature lands that enter untapped during the early parts of the game and tap for meaningful colored mana warrant testing. I expect this land to be serviceable, wanting evasion, an upgrade to hexproof, or a cheaper activation cost to make it really great. I’ll be testing this at 540 with a glass-half-full attitude, but don’t expect it to be amazing.
Dungeon Crawler
A new 2-power 1-drop Zombie.
What I Like: For cubes that support black aggro with 2-power 1-drops that also have Gravecrawler hanging around, Dungeon Crawler functions as an aggro beater that’s a Zombie that doesn’t make you lose life. And if you have any Venture support in the cube, it may get some recursive value once in a blue moon.
What I Don't Like: Since the odds of ever recurring this via Venture are insanely low, this is essentially just a 1-toughness version of Diregraf Ghoul most of the time. I like it more than the options that cause me to lose life, since black is loaded with self-damaging effects as it is, but it’ll never be anything more than fringe-playable unless we see a lot more Venture in future sets.
Verdict: If you like 2-power 1-drop Zombies that don’t deal damage to you, this guy’s your man. If not, it won’t be of any interest to you unless you’re DEEP in the Venture plan. I’m begrudgingly playing this at 540 until it’s black’s turn to get a Ragavan.
Hand of Vecna
A new aggressive piece of equipment.
What I Like: I liked the look of this card when I first read it, but I couldn’t put my finger on why until Patrunkenphat7 pointed out that it has a similar play pattern to Grafted Wargear. So I started comparing the numbers. On the play, if you play a land and a spell every turn, When you cast and equip this on T3 and strap it to your 1-drop or 2-drop, it’ll grant +3 damage. Next turn you untap and draw, attack for +4, and play land/spell or spell/spell post-combat and go back down to 2 cards. The following turn you’ll draw back up to 3 and get +3 damage again. So on the play, you’re +3, +4, +3 for a total of +10 damage in your first 3 swings, and that’s better than Wargear in terms of overall damage, without putting the creature at risk vs Shatter effects. If you’re on the draw, that changes to +4, +5, +4 …for a total of +13 damage, which is big game. This can be further increased by cantrips, draw spells/effects, and even by big draw-7 effects for massive damage. If you curved from a Preordain into a Baleful Strix into Hand of Vecna, you can bash with damn near a full hand every turn, which is stupid kinds of damage. Unlike Wargear, you don’t have to risk getting 2-for-1’d by your opponent’s Disenchant effects, and you can freely move Hand to another creature without sacrificing the first body. Plus, once the mana isn’t an issue anymore, you can always pay the 2 mana to equip Hand instead of paying life.
What I Don't Like: This card is weakened when you mulligan, it can be a bad topdeck if you were forced to play out all your other cards to stay in the game, and the impact can be lowered by your opponent’s discard effects. It also only triggers at the start of combat, so the toughness bonus isn’t live on your opponent’s turn for extra defense and survivability. Plus, the life you pay to equip on curve relegates this equipment to being pretty much an aggro exclusive card.
Verdict: I don’t think this is the second coming of Grafted Wargear because there are a lot of consistency issues. But I do think this is everything I ever wanted from Empyrial Armor and Empyrial Plate kinds of effects for this format, and I think it’s leagues better in aggro decks than most other 3+ mana pieces of equipment are. I’m testing this at 540 and I think it’s a safe bet there for being pretty good. I would play it in larger cubes for sure, and this card is my pick for the “sleeper” card that might wind up being really good even in small cubes.
Lair of the Hydra
The green fast manland!
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: As steve_man pointed out in the SCD, this land is essentially a color-shifted Lavaclaw Reaches into mono-green. You essentially pay XGG to Fireball the opponent or one of their ‘walkers on an open board. It doesn’t fix mana like Reaches does, but it enters untapped a lot, and unlike Reaches, Hydra’s toughness also gets the boost. So when this is set to X=3+, I can attack into my opponent’s 2-power creatures without risking my land in the process. This also looks like another great manland to tutor up with Primeval Titan.
What I Don't Like: I really wish this land had trample.
Verdict: Trample would’ve made this land a staple. As it is, I think it’s going to be good, but not broken or anything. Another card that needs close evaluation over a long timeline to analyze properly. I’m optimistically testing this out in my 540.
Hive of the Eye Tyrant
The black fast manland!
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: This land has evasion, so a single blocker can’t hold back your attack for 3. Making it decent for pressuring ‘walkers or forcing bad blocks. It also provides some maindeckable graveyard hate, which becomes more and more useful with each passing set. Historically, manlands with evasion have proven to be quite strong, and I expect this one to follow suit.
What I Don't Like: This land is the one where I felt like the one mana overpayment was the most punishing. Windows where Menace is great isn’t super reliable, so having to pay 5 total mana instead of 4 makes the window where the evasion is perfect a little smaller.
Verdict: I think the activation cost really needed to be 2B in order to have something really special here. As is, I think it’s good and I’m happy to test any evasive manland at 540 (especially one that often enters untapped). Perhaps one mana too expensive on the activation side from this being a really special land for smaller, tighter cube lists.
Nadaar, Selfless Paladin
A truly legendary dungeon explorer!
How do dungeons work, and what is Venture? Follow this link, and watch this video: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/adventures-forgotten-realms-mechanics-2021-07-02 .
In the cube, the mechanic feels a bit like Monarch, in that it requires the test from matching tokens to know what it is and how it works.
Basically, if you’re not in a dungeon and you Venture, you move into the top room of one of these dungeons (of your choice):
Once you’re in a dungeon, each time you venture you move down a room until you get to the bottom, collecting triggers as you go. Once you explore the last room, you collect that trigger and the dungeon goes away, and you’ve “completed” the dungeon. You can re-explore that same dungeon with future Venture cards or explore a different dungeon.
So every card that has “Venture” on it adds the abilities of those dungeons to themselves, making the mechanic deep and complex. Each dungeon shines in different situations, making it difficult to evaluate all the different things you can do with Venture without seeing it in action.
For the cube, I think the best Venture effects are going to be ones that can Venture repeatedly and reliably, so you can enter and subsequently complete dungeons with a single card. Cobbling together enough Venture triggers from 1-shot effects is too difficult for our format, so being able to repeatedly Venture is important.
What I Like: I think Nadaar is the best dungeon Venturing card in the base set. It gives you both an ETB Venture trigger and attacking triggers as you continue to explore. Flickering Nadaar can move you further down the dungeon, and Nadaar also has a very nice reward for finishing a dungeon in the form of a static anthem effect. There are a ton of different options you can choose for ETB triggers, and then a bunch of paths you can take when Venturing into the various dungeons, so it’s really hard to know exactly how good this card will be until we see it in action. But just looking at one path of one dungeon (the left path of the Lost Mine) the play patterns are pretty strong. LucidVision compared Nadaar’s path down this dungeon to Brimaz, King of Oreskos and the results were surprising. On its own, Brimaz attacks for 4 -> 5 -> 6 for a total of 15 damage in its first 3 attacks. Nadaar attacks for 3 -> 5 -> 6 for a total of 14 damage. But since the anthem contributes to the damage, even a single other attacking creature makes Nadaar’s damage comparable to Brimaz’s damage. Brimaz has 4 toughness and makes more bodies, but Nadaar has a splashable mana cost, scries, draws a card, and anthem’s the rest of the board during that same timetable. Keep in mind that’s just ONE path of ONE dungeon …there are a lot of other things to choose from.
What I Don't Like: The learning curve will be steep, and there will be a lot of misplays when choosing dungeons and paths, and they might not always be obvious. Nadaar is weak to Bolts until can secure a +1/+1 counter for it (if that’s the dungeon you choose). But other than that, I’m pretty optimistic about Nadaar, and I think it’ll be quite good.
Verdict: I understand the hesitation some folks have with Venture and dungeons. The same reason a lot of folks don’t like Monarch. It’s more rules you have to know, and cards do things that aren’t printed on the card. And Venture is all of those problems dialed up to 11! But if you’re willing to deal with those issues, I think Nadaar is a good card and worth tinkering around with. Venture can do so many things that it’s going to take a long time to iron out all the different forms and functions it can serve. I’m playing this at 540 and expect it to play quite well. It likely warrants extensive testing at 450 even if it doesn’t stay forever, since there’s so much to unpack here.
Den of the Bugbear
The red fast manland!
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: This land eventually adds a lot of attacking power to the board over time. As steve_man pointed out, the damage is comparable to a mono-colored Raging Ravine in terms of activation cost vs damage output. But for aggressive decks, entering untapped is a big deal, as is being only one color. This land can help push the token support that red’s been driving, and actually has a cute interaction if you’re super flooded; you can activate the ability twice before you attack, and make two tokens instead of one when you swing.
What I Don't Like: Having no real evasion for the main body and having only 2 toughness is a drag. If the opponent has even one lowly bear out, there won’t be a clear path to apply meaningful pressure with this land. If anything holds it back, it’ll be that. The damage output on an open board is comparable to Ravine’s, but the toughness sure isn’t.
Verdict: 3 toughness, first strike …something to prevent it from dying to lions, pikers and bears in combat would’ve been really sweet. This is a great land as it is, and I expect it to play well at 450+, but it might’ve been a 360 staple with first strike or a 3rd point of toughness.
Cave of the Frost Dragon
The white fast manland!
I wanted to quickly introduce the new cycle of creature lands by discussing some of their pros and cons as a whole, so this brief evaluation applies to all the fast manlands from this set.
This is the first time we have ever seen manlands that can tap for meaningful colors of mana in the early game. Every other manland we’ve played with and evaluated has had the drawback of either tapping for colorless or entering the battlefield tapped. As a result, we’ve learned to evaluate creature lands in a specific way, but those evaluations don’t necessarily line up with these new lands since their opportunity cost is lower. Without seeing them in action extensively, it’s going to be hard to properly evaluate them, and study their modified balance of opportunity cost versus value.
What I Like: Like all manlands, they increase your threat density with a relatively low opportunity cost, and the threats are sorcery-removal proof and function as great threats post-board wipe. With these lands, if you see 14-15 cards in the average game, and 8-9 of those cards are available before you play your 2nd land, these should enter the battlefield untapped ~60% of the time. That’s a big deal in comparison to lands that always enter tapped.
What I Don’t Like: I wish they would’ve been worded like the other cycle of fastlands, since these enter tapped on T3 and it makes them unnecessarily different from an existing template.
Verdict: At first glance, each of the new manlands looks to be overcosted by approximately one colorless mana or it needs a keyword adjustment in order to be worth it under the old manland evaluation standards. However, entering untapped more often than not makes these a lot better as lands than other designs we’ve seen, so the creature form is bound to be weaker in order to compensate. I aim to test all of these to see if the entering untapped clause makes up for the slightly overcosted activation values. My guess is yes, but without extensive testing, there’s no way to know for sure.
What I Like: Flying is good on manlands. Celestial Colonnade is a really good land. By comparison, they both cost 6 total mana to activate, but Colonnade gets a 1-mana “discount” because of the vigilance. Cave only attacks for 3, but it’s only one color and will often enter untapped, so that’s really important to remember. In comparison to a smaller flying manland like Faerie Conclave, the 4 toughness is huge, keeping it out of Bolt range and ensuring it survives combat against those pesky 3-power flying threats that are all around in the cube. It also makes for a good defensive flying creature since it can stop most flying creatures in the cube. It can also attack into Thopters and Spirits and stuff; tokens that often stonewall Conclave. Shoehorning another win condition into Moat decks will be useful too.
What I Don't Like: This probably costs one mana too much to activate in comparison to Colonnade’s cost/stats.
Verdict: I think people are sleeping on this card. A mono-colored Colonnade variant sounds good to me, and overpaying by a mana or so in the activation cost is a small price to pay for a 3/4 flying manland that enters the battlefield untapped, taps for colored mana, and only requires one color of mana to activate. Happy to slam this into my 540. Would gladly test at 450. Might actually be good enough for some 360 cubes if slower white midrange/control decks are still viable and Moat is a thing. I think this is worth some extensive testing.
Portable Hole
A flexible 1cc white removal spell.
What I Like: In powered cubes, I’ll take as many flexible 1-mana answers to broken fast mana that they want to print for me. This reminds me a bit of Fatal Push, but it trades the Revolt trigger and the instant speed for the ability to hit all nonland permanent types instead of just creatures. It’s a good rate and a cheap spell, and it kills all artifacts, creatures, enchantments …and even a couple of planeswalkers! for one mana.
What I Don't Like: The effect can be undone by my opponent’s incidental Shatter effects, so if there’s something really important underneath it, the removal can be temporary. The value will also vary a lot from cube to cube. Low-to-the-ground powered cubes will have a lot more targets and get a lot more value from it than slower unpowered cubes without a ton of early must-kill targets will. And obviously, the mana value restriction will rear its ugly head from time to time and you might go without meaningful targets in some games.
Verdict: Tight powered cubes are loaded with a ton of premium early targets for Hole to snag. Unpowered cubes (especially ones without Signets and Talisman) might be lacking in a lot of targets that add the extra value to Hole and make it so valuable. I think this is a card that ranges from 360-450 for powered cubes, and 450-540 for unpowered cubes. But a 1cc answer to ~150+ cards in the cube (plus all tokens) is nothing to ignore. Card looks set to impress.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave comments!
Cheers, and happy cubing.
My 540 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 47th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from WOE!
One card I am looking at is Monk of the Open Hand for white aggro decks since it fixes the problem of white aggro not being able to get over X/2's very well without trading or paying more mana than either red or black would have to do. This card seems like it could be the nuts for white aggro like Goblin Guide is for red aggro or Dark Confidant is for black aggro (obviously not as good as either since those two fit into more decks). Ebondeath is another card I think will play better than it first appears since it is probably the single greatest win condition for control decks while also being perfectly playable in other strategies as a backup plan or just as a good stat monster.
I understand why Venture feels not worth the effort, and some groups will elect to simply ignore it as a mechanic.
I considered Monk, but after playtesting Clarion Spirit a lot, I realized how inconsistent the double-spell turns can be. I would need Monk's triggers to be consistent, and consistent early in order for it to be great. In constructed, I'm sure it will be able to be a 3/3 or 4/4 with relative ease. In the cube, I don't know how often it'll be bashing for 2 on T2 in comparison to the other options white has.
My 540 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 47th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from WOE!
1. Den of the Bugbear looks like a really amazing card - helps the red aggro to avoid flooding, while not hurting its early game. This feels like a slam dunk for me. The other manlands are an unfortunate wait and see - my cube is pretty tight right now and I really don't have any room.
2. Portable Hole - Another card I really like, helps the keep the speed of moxen/ 1 - drops in check for slower decks.
3. Zariel, Archduke of Avernus - In summary, this is a card I would love to have for a variety of reasons, but the problem is my red section is too tight right now and I cannot find a cut as of right now - either in red or the multi color sections.
Its just unfortunate that we just don't have any room for a lot of these powerful cards in the future. Some days I wish I had 3-4 more colorless slots for +1 Utility land, +2 Mana rocks and +1 Sword/ Equipment, but with all these packages, I guess you cannot have it all
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
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StaffMy High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
This article is going to make me try the white manland. I was sold on the Jund lands, and the explanation for the white one makes sense.
I think they're amazing but the problem is I just do not have any room for these cards.
I've recently tried a new green package and cut Cultivate and Kodama's Reach and realized I lacked the land ramp for cards like Palinchron/ Field of the Dead to be effective ..
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
Are you running the spell lands like Call of Emeria? In my opinion these manlands are going to be higher impact than several of the spell lands that I see in most cubes. Shatterskull Smashing feels like a staple to us, but other than that one I think some of the spell flip lands are lower impact.
You're welcome!
And yes, it can be really hard to find room for cuts, especially if combo and archetype packages run deep.
So far all of the manlands have been good in testing. Creature lands tend not to disappoint.
Flying is good.
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Plus, it's more important to write articles for finding diamonds in the rough than it is to write an article about a bunch of obviously good cards.
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My 47th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from WOE!
Cheers,
rant
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That's probably fair. If you want another aggressive piece of equipment, keep Hand of Vecna in the back of your mind. Card's pretty good.
I think the manlands are pretty good, so it might be worth testing them, even at smaller sizes, to see if they work for you guys.
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My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 47th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from WOE!
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My 540 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 47th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from WOE!
Yeah, you are likely right. That's another one to watch. I really wanted a cubeworthy beholder.
Cheers,
rant
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The closest we're going to get is the Death Tyrant from AVC.
If you play Hive of the Eye Tyrant with the D&D art, that'll get you there too!
My 540 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 47th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from WOE!
Hive of the Eye Tyrant vs. Agadeem's Awakening?
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
My 540 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 47th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from WOE!
I'm only really confident about Portable Hole sticking around long term. But Wight has been really nice so far. It's easy to replace itself and then that's a huge amount of power for 2 mana. It can get chumped by bigger creatures but that's the case for most 2 drops. Even then there are removal/burn tricks to get a free 2/2 after the fact. Zombie typing is nice. It's no Dauthi Voidwalker, but not much is...
Ebondeath is interesting as an unusually fast clock on a 4 drop that is somewhat resilient, but expect may fall short eventually.
Nalaar is probably the best feature of the dungeon mechanic and I'll be testing him out too. As you say there are a lot of lines of play. I hope to see the mechanic revisited with new dungeons and cards in the future.
I am not super excited about any of the Manlands, of course they are going to be decent at worst!
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
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My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 47th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from WOE!
I had really hoped the commander deck was gonna ship with a 4th (non-standard legal) dungeon, but maybe the way the comp rules are written venture cards can always go into any dungeon so that wasn't an option. Still gonna grab a malison to test as I think it's a close enough impression of Looter-Il-Kor to maybe get there.
465 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
My 540 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 47th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from WOE!