It seems like the new walkers, Death's Majesty and new Gideon, have been putting up mixed results. I've been holding back on buying these because of the price. Does anyone have more results?
It seems like the new walkers, Death's Majesty and new Gideon, have been putting up mixed results. I've been holding back on buying these because of the price. Does anyone have more results?
Both are great. Neither are 360 staples, but they're very good cards.
Gideon was alright. It played a lot like Kiora 1.0 when I played against it. Not essential (and its price will drop in the coming months) but it is a worthwhile cube inclusion.
About to commit to buying some of these since I had no luck pulling any of them. Can I get a little more feedback on the following based on your experiences?
Combat Celebrant - Is this guy good enough outside of Kiki Combo? I am definitely considering including a small Kiki package, but I don't know that I would include this guy if it doesn't do decent work outside of this combo. Was going to cut Exquisite Firecraft for this.
Rhonas the Indomitable - This is the only AKH god that has a shot at inclusion in my cube. Has this been active with some regularity for you guys? I'd probably switch this in for Eldritch Evolution.
About to commit to buying some of these since I had no luck pulling any of them. Can I get a little more feedback on the following based on your experiences?
Combat Celebrant - Is this guy good enough outside of Kiki Combo? I am definitely considering including a small Kiki package, but I don't know that I would include this guy if it doesn't do decent work outside of this combo. Was going to cut Exquisite Firecraft for this.
Rhonas the Indomitable - This is the only AKH god that has a shot at inclusion in my cube. Has this been active with some regularity for you guys? I'd probably switch this in for Eldritch Evolution.
Combat celebrant has been playable but unexciting outside of kiki-combo. Vulnerable to removal and needs support.. but can do some serious damage in occasional situations. Haven't fully formed opinion, but it's not crazy good or anything.
Rhonas has dropped in stock for me after initial testing results. It's a card that has a very high ceiling, but a low floor. When you are behind in tempo, it can feel like a dead card. When your opponent is removing all your other threats, he doesn't do anything... But If you curve rhonas into another big threat, or are playing against a removal light deck, he's flat out game warping. Lot's of variance in the cards performance... Haven't yet concluded if it deserves a slot in 450-540 range. It's for sure close.
Samut is more of a pet card than anything else. Too much competition for the deck slot, even when I do have all the creatures that she's really good at curving into.
Samut not having trample is a huge problem. So far its been easy to just chump block it until you find a removal spell.
Combat Celebrant seems good but fragile. The 4/1 body can be decent or can be terrible depending on what you are up against but if you can set up a decent to good attack that you want to do twice then it can be ok. So far I have yet to see it as a kikki jikki combo piece.
Samut does a LOT of crazy things and continues to surprise me. The other night I cast entwine'd Tooth and Nail getting Samut and Ulamog - instant mill 20, gg. You can also do nasty plays like EOT flash in Samut, untap and cast inferno titan
Rhonas has been pretty bad/underwhelming. It's awkward in that If it's not a creature and you can't use the mana ability T4, you've essentially spent T4 doing nothing. That being said, he did give one of my two TNN's trample and enough for lethal in one game, but I don't think I would've lost a game with two TNNs so take that with a grain of salt.
Liliana seemed awesome on the other table. Turns out that a PW that *****s out tokens, returns cube creatures to play from the GY, and has an ultimate that is essentially plague wind is great. It would take a lot to remove it at this point.
Harsh Mentor has been hit or miss, but the miss isn't that bad since it's not like a 1/1 first strike as a floor and the hit has been great. In our discord chat steve_man said it was effectively hitting/pacifying 4-6 cards he had in hand and in play, which is pretty solid for a two drop.
Manglehorn is solid. The tap ability hasn't been too relevant, but I think that was more the situations and not a reflection of the card. In a powered environment I like having two answers to rocks and such at 2G, and this + reclamation sage are great until the next one is printed.
Forsake the Worldly is good. I don't know if I like it better than disenchant, and Im not sure I absolutely need both, but it has been fine on both modes.
Combat Celebrant has been a problem/annoying card every time I've faced it. It pretty much reads 'you need to make sure you don't die next turn', and there are a lot of cards that can severely punish you if you don't leave enough blockers back with celebrant. + the kiki package is waiting. Im a fan.
I'm pretty disappointed with Gideon of the trials. I feel like someone made this point already, but his 0 ability is kind of useless in practice and he is pretty subpar in both aggressive and defensive strategies. The +1 is a big-whoop in control most of the time, and if you need him to attack then he is fine as a 4/4 for 1WW but still underwhelming. Dodging both your own and opponent's wraths is nice but I'm still ready to cut it.
Dread Wanderer was pretty killer in a Braids deck with Flesh Carver. Even if it's an expensive ability, it's made for a deck which grinds so not having to rely on your deck for card advantage is nice. It's great to have another option for recursive creatures in black, I hope we get more soon.
Harsh Mentor was played against me in a session last weekend and was insane. Obv he has a lot of variance but this was the perfect match up / game for him to shine. I had a sword, skullclamp and Sun Titan but the only target I could recur turn-after-turn was Evolving Wilds.
Played against Harsh Mentor a few times this weekend and it always kept at least 2 things in check. Very solid and annoying to play against. One scenario I remember I had Scroll Rack / Memory Jar in Grixis Artifacts and another match I had Wasteland / Rishadan Port / Cursed Scroll / fetchland playing Orzhov Aggro. I barely won this match vs Rakdos aggro. He had me pinned down with Harsh Mentor / Sulfuric Vortex, and it came down to two 50/50 Cursed Scroll activation to take out his Harsh Mentor and his Grim Lavamancer. Luckily, my Cursed Scroll hit its mark both times and I was barely able to come out on top before Vortex did me in.
Liliana has exceeded my expectations. She's almost always reanimating some value creature right out of the gates like FTK or Grave Titan, even in creature light control decks.
Gideon is solid, although his Platinum Gideon ability really hasn't been abused yet. Still, I like both his offensive / defensive capabilities.
Forsake the Worldly is good. I don't know if I like it better than disenchant, and Im not sure I absolutely need both, but it has been fine on both modes.
Having it against both Wurmcoil Engine and Scuttling Doom Engine was a life saver. Also great against Purphoros. Those were my experiences with it last weekend.
Got my AKH set delivered right before cube night - so glad to finally test some new cards! While I swapped about 15 cards, I'll only commepnt on those that made it into the draft. For reference, my cube is 666 powered and contains conspiracies.
Angel of sanctions (cut dictate of heliod, main decked in BW reanimator) - This card was drafted early and did a ton of work. Highlight was taking out a Jace on 11 loyalty. Only embalmed once, but was frequently the reanimation target of choice.
Sandwurm Convergence (cut terastodon, main decked, green ramp) - The convergence was cast once and stranded in hand once. It would have won the game but the follow-up play of Ulamog got hit with a frenzied fugue.
Glorybringer (cut hero of oxide ridge, maindecked in RB deck) Was good and earned it's spot.
Censor (cut skyship plunderer, maindecked in RU tokens/artifacts) - Made it into the main deck over Control Magic. Didn't get played but I was very happy to have it in my deck.
I have a 540 powered Cube with Conspiracy cards & we seeded 25 cards in every draft today. The cards listed below are by my prerelease rankings. This was how the cards played in 3 drafts:
Gideon of the Trials is great. Card of the set to me & I think is worth testing in Cubes of all sizes.
Liliana, Death's Majesty also played quite well. It was weird facing down a mono-black planeswalker that made tokens. Such a different dynamic than my prior Cube experience. It was a key card that crushed my face in my worst match of the night. The black 5-drop we’ve wanted for a long time. It made tokens & recurred problem cards that I thought I’d dealt with. Even did the self-milling into reanimating.
Nissa, Steward of Elements was also great! 3 Cubeworthy walkers from one set rarely happens. The loyalty grows so fast with the Scry ability then the ultimate is a ton of damage. Highlight of the night was building new Nissa to ultimate then casting Nissa, Vital Force and making another animated land & bashing for a ton of damage. Achievement unlocked moment there. I wouldn’t hesitate to call this the #1 Simic card in Cube.
Never // Return was solid. Not as good as Hero’s Downfall but way better than Ruinous Path.
The Cycling Lands were actually disappointing. Most players didn’t cycle a single land. The blue ones are staying in the Cube but I don’t think I’m keeping the rest of the cycle.
Angel of Sanctions just isn’t necessary. It’s fine but that’s it. Really bummed about how this card did. The white 5-drop slot is so crowded & although the Embalm is cool I don’t think it’s worth it here.
Rhonas the Indomitable was just amazing. I thought this card had a lot of potential and it exceeded my expectations by a ton. It was played in every draft & it may have hit the field more than any other card in today’s drafts. Being easy to activate & always being a creature were two relevant factors. I’m actually ranking this as the best non-planeswalker in the set & everyone in our group mentioned how much the card that impressed them.
Glory-Bound Initiate was exerted often & was worthwhile. We cut Mistral Charger for this & am glad we did so far.
Vizier of the Menagerie is a card that can be inconsistent but it shined in many decks tonight. Played in every draft & even chained together multiple creatures which was fun to watch. It’s no Oracle of Mul Daya but I’d rank it as the #3 green 4-drop creature behind Oracle & Thrun. This was a card I was really happy to see succeed.
Samut, Voice of Dissent was in decks but didn’t hit play very much. Jury is still out on this but for now I’m slotting it as the 4th Gruul card.
Forsake the Worldly got cycled every time my opponent played it. I never saw it cast. My Cube is at the point where a card like Grasp of Fate is almost cut. Would we rather just keep Grasp in since it’s more flexible? I’m leaning toward yes & cutting Forsake.
Vizier of Many Faces may be one too many clone effects for my Cube but it’s just been really solid. Not sure if it will stick but you can justify this card at 540.
Combat Celebrant really feels like it needs haste. I had games tonight where it just sat in my hand. Another player (with a deck better suited for it) had a lot of success with it & its mere presence forced a removal spell or a victory for the exerting player.
Harsh Mentor was a scary scary card. I had just played 0/2 Jace & my opponent responded with this. I was forced to use removal because it was going to destroy me. This card will have high variance but I saw enough tonight to know the testing needs to continue.
Bloodrage Brawler did some fun things tonight like discard a huge creature then watch it get reanimated via Recurring Nightmare on turn 3.
Soul-Scar Mage got played in zero decks tonight. Not a good omen for a card I think is the worst red 1-drop in my Cube.
Hazoret the Fervent was animated a lot tonight. The haste portion was relevant more than you’d expect. Both the red & the green gods outperformed expectations. I’d test both at 540 and 450 if you’re looking for a change of pace. Player said “Hazoret did a ton of damage for me tonight.”
Commit//Memory sealed a game for me by memory lapsing a spell & not being able to have it cast for an extra turn. That was all the time I needed to win. Never saw the Memory part come into play.
Testing will continue on these cards though my personal life has prevented me from Cubing a ton. Overall a great set for Cube & really excited to get more time with the listed cards.
The Cycling Lands were actually disappointing. Most players didn’t cycle a single land. The blue ones are staying in the Cube but I don’t think I’m keeping the rest of the cycle.
This was my initial impression after one draft as well. After a couple more drafts with them in, it hasn't changed. I really like them as the fifth best land for the more controlling (ie blue) pairs, but at least for Rakdos and Gruul, I really miss the fast lands. Hitting play untapped in the early stages is way more important, imo, than the ability to cycle away in the later stages for the archetypes that usually come from those color pairs.
Cycling lands were great for me again in a draft last night. Was able to fetch Fetid Pools up once, and cycle it once, in 3 total appearances. It was much better than any other #5 land would've been in its respective spot.
Cycling lands were great for me again in a draft last night. Was able to fetch Fetid Pools up once, and cycle it once, in 3 total appearances. It was much better than any other #5 land would've been in its respective spot.
I agree 100% in the case of Fetid Pools. The UW and UB ones have been excellent in those decks and are easily the fifth best land for those color pairs, no contest. I've also seen the RB one be pretty good in a Grixis list, but three color decks aren't what I'm looking to support in my two color guild sections. I think, when you're playing a more aggressive deck, the set back of ETB tapped early in the game far outweighs the potential pay off of being able to cycle it for value later in the game. Being fetchable is certainly a plus, even in the aggro decks, but again, ETB tapped just gives me the feel bads.
Eh, even in aggressive decks, the cycling and fetchability are super relevant. Plus, aggro decks aren't the only decks in those color combinations. And while hard Rakdos aggro might want a Pain/Fast land, there are plenty of RB shells that would prefer the cycling land, and it's absolutely still a playable land even in aggressive builds anyways.
I understand the desire to play with faster lands, and it's a fine decision. But for me, I've had a lot of success with the cycling lands so far. They've been great in grindier decks, and still quite solid for aggressive shells. Overall, I think their advantages outweigh their drawbacks, and I'm happy to keep playing the full friendly cycle.
I really hope we get the enemy set of the bicycle lands soon. They have also tested well for me. There are occasions where ETB tapped has been an inconvenience, but between fetchability and being able to cycle them away these cards are pretty amazing even in faster color pairs. They are especially good in my lists as I don't run the ABU duals so am starved for dual lands with basic land types (I traditionally have run double shock for this reason).
Been cubing like a fiend on Xmage since I've been sick the past couple of days.
Glory-Bound Initiate
- As good as I expected, the exert is really good at pushing damage through bigger creatures and the life gain is very noticeable and he just breaks the aggro mirror when uncontested. Works extremely well with other pump effects. I don't see him going anywhere any time soon.
Trueheart Duelist
- Probably the best Embalm creature but that's not saying much. This is definitely in the lower tier of my current 2-drops. I like it more than Relic Seeker since this has decent discard / graveyard synergies and can hold equipment well. Will probably be replaced once a better 1W comes along, but I'm in no hurry to replace it with anything current.
Gideon of the Trials
- I've been playing with Gideon a lot lately and he's super solid. He's essentially a Maze of Ith that can turn into a 4/4 manland. I've re-added The Abyss with my artifact package and this plays extremely well in Abyss control shells since Gideon can contain any problematic artifact creatures that The Abyss can't kill. I joked a lot about Gideon Tribal.dec when this was released. While I've never used the Platinum Gideon ability yet, this stacks well with Maze of Ith / Gideon Jura if you're into defensive grindy decks.
Censor
- Really haven't seen it in action yet, but it's comparable enough to similar cards to where I think it will be staying in the cube for a bit.
Commit // Memory
- I think this might be the sleeper of the set. Being able to react to both any non-land permanent or spell on the stack is a very rare ability. Commit is versatility we haven't seen since Venser and having a random draw 7 has proved useful at times.
Pull from Tomrorow
- Haven't see in action yet : /
Dread Wanderer
- As good as advertised, Gravecrawler really benefits from not just from another zombie, but a zombie that can also recur itself.
Liliana, Death's Majesty
- She's been very good and I haven't even played her in a shell where she would shine most. Her reanimation ability is heavy value and being able to self-mill is extremely useful. I don't think I've seen her ceiling yet, but I've been liking what I've seen so far.
Never // Return
- Really haven't seen it in action yet, but I played enough Ruinous Path to know that this earns its keep.
Soul-Scar Mage
- I haven't seen this card in action much, so I haven't seen the Wither effect yet. I like it as my last red 1-drop though.
Harsh Mentor
- This has exceeded my expectations. It's almost always pinning something down, often times multiple things. Harsh Mentor hits almost exactly 20% of my current cards, would recommend if your cube is within that range.
Hazoret
- Have yet to see it in action
Manglehorn
- Pretty much knew what to expect from a strictly better Sex Monkeys, will say that the tap ability is pretty annoying since your opponent can't block right away with Wurmcoil Engine / Myr Battlesphere / etc.
Samut, Voice of Dissent
- Kind of lackluster compared to other green / red 5's. She has a high ceiling, but it's hard to even make the cut in decks where she can win out of nowhere. Will be replacing her with Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh in HOU.
Nissa, Steward of Elements
- I haven't seen her personally in my games, but I've spectated a lot of games where she's in and she seems fine. Wish I could see what the players were scrying though : /
Dual Lands
- These have been a hit. I'm playing all 5 right now and they're all useful. Being fetchable / cycleable / and having other benefits of being X land type outweigh the fact that they always ETB tapped, IMO.
CARDS THAT ALREADY GOT AXED
Angel of Sanctions
- Really didn't need another white 5-drop, I really wanted it to be good.
Glyph Keeper
- Too clunky, doesn't do anything well in particular.
Had a quick draft yesterday that highlighted a few cards.
All the cycling lands are good. The ability to fetch them, get other land-type-centric effects to work, and be able to cycle them when unneeded is just big game. I won a game yesterday because I was able to cycle one away when I was flooded, and found an out I was looking for.
Liliana was very solid. It played both the grindy mode when needed, and it put an Atarka onto the battlefield in another matchup. It plays great as both a black midrange value 'walker and a reanimator support card.
Glyph Keeper
- Too clunky, doesn't do anything well in particular.
I actually have the literal exact opposite experience with Glyph Keeper. It literally won me a game/match, as my opponent was unable to efficiently answer/deal with it, and in other games it has been a huge problem. I think Glyph Keeper is my slepeer of the set.
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Both are great. Neither are 360 staples, but they're very good cards.
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Combat Celebrant - Is this guy good enough outside of Kiki Combo? I am definitely considering including a small Kiki package, but I don't know that I would include this guy if it doesn't do decent work outside of this combo. Was going to cut Exquisite Firecraft for this.
Rhonas the Indomitable - This is the only AKH god that has a shot at inclusion in my cube. Has this been active with some regularity for you guys? I'd probably switch this in for Eldritch Evolution.
Bloodrage Brawler - Is the drawback too much here? How has this performed for you? Would like to cut Goblin Glory Chaser.
Samut, Voice of Dissent - Has anybody slotted her into their Gruul section? Could it beat out Huntmaster of the Fells?
Combat celebrant has been playable but unexciting outside of kiki-combo. Vulnerable to removal and needs support.. but can do some serious damage in occasional situations. Haven't fully formed opinion, but it's not crazy good or anything.
Rhonas has dropped in stock for me after initial testing results. It's a card that has a very high ceiling, but a low floor. When you are behind in tempo, it can feel like a dead card. When your opponent is removing all your other threats, he doesn't do anything... But If you curve rhonas into another big threat, or are playing against a removal light deck, he's flat out game warping. Lot's of variance in the cards performance... Haven't yet concluded if it deserves a slot in 450-540 range. It's for sure close.
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Combat Celebrant seems good but fragile. The 4/1 body can be decent or can be terrible depending on what you are up against but if you can set up a decent to good attack that you want to do twice then it can be ok. So far I have yet to see it as a kikki jikki combo piece.
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Rhonas has been pretty bad/underwhelming. It's awkward in that If it's not a creature and you can't use the mana ability T4, you've essentially spent T4 doing nothing. That being said, he did give one of my two TNN's trample and enough for lethal in one game, but I don't think I would've lost a game with two TNNs so take that with a grain of salt.
Liliana seemed awesome on the other table. Turns out that a PW that *****s out tokens, returns cube creatures to play from the GY, and has an ultimate that is essentially plague wind is great. It would take a lot to remove it at this point.
Harsh Mentor has been hit or miss, but the miss isn't that bad since it's not like a 1/1 first strike as a floor and the hit has been great. In our discord chat steve_man said it was effectively hitting/pacifying 4-6 cards he had in hand and in play, which is pretty solid for a two drop.
Manglehorn is solid. The tap ability hasn't been too relevant, but I think that was more the situations and not a reflection of the card. In a powered environment I like having two answers to rocks and such at 2G, and this + reclamation sage are great until the next one is printed.
Forsake the Worldly is good. I don't know if I like it better than disenchant, and Im not sure I absolutely need both, but it has been fine on both modes.
Combat Celebrant has been a problem/annoying card every time I've faced it. It pretty much reads 'you need to make sure you don't die next turn', and there are a lot of cards that can severely punish you if you don't leave enough blockers back with celebrant. + the kiki package is waiting. Im a fan.
I'm pretty disappointed with Gideon of the trials. I feel like someone made this point already, but his 0 ability is kind of useless in practice and he is pretty subpar in both aggressive and defensive strategies. The +1 is a big-whoop in control most of the time, and if you need him to attack then he is fine as a 4/4 for 1WW but still underwhelming. Dodging both your own and opponent's wraths is nice but I'm still ready to cut it.
Dread Wanderer was pretty killer in a Braids deck with Flesh Carver. Even if it's an expensive ability, it's made for a deck which grinds so not having to rely on your deck for card advantage is nice. It's great to have another option for recursive creatures in black, I hope we get more soon.
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All heavily muted by Harsh Mentor.
Liliana has exceeded my expectations. She's almost always reanimating some value creature right out of the gates like FTK or Grave Titan, even in creature light control decks.
Gideon is solid, although his Platinum Gideon ability really hasn't been abused yet. Still, I like both his offensive / defensive capabilities.
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Having it against both Wurmcoil Engine and Scuttling Doom Engine was a life saver. Also great against Purphoros. Those were my experiences with it last weekend.
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Angel of sanctions (cut dictate of heliod, main decked in BW reanimator) - This card was drafted early and did a ton of work. Highlight was taking out a Jace on 11 loyalty. Only embalmed once, but was frequently the reanimation target of choice.
Sandwurm Convergence (cut terastodon, main decked, green ramp) - The convergence was cast once and stranded in hand once. It would have won the game but the follow-up play of Ulamog got hit with a frenzied fugue.
Liliana, Death's majesty (cut Sidisi, sideboard RB aggro/midrange)
Glorybringer (cut hero of oxide ridge, maindecked in RB deck) Was good and earned it's spot.
Censor (cut skyship plunderer, maindecked in RU tokens/artifacts) - Made it into the main deck over Control Magic. Didn't get played but I was very happy to have it in my deck.
I'll pay here wroth further testing.
Gideon of the Trials is great. Card of the set to me & I think is worth testing in Cubes of all sizes.
Liliana, Death's Majesty also played quite well. It was weird facing down a mono-black planeswalker that made tokens. Such a different dynamic than my prior Cube experience. It was a key card that crushed my face in my worst match of the night. The black 5-drop we’ve wanted for a long time. It made tokens & recurred problem cards that I thought I’d dealt with. Even did the self-milling into reanimating.
Nissa, Steward of Elements was also great! 3 Cubeworthy walkers from one set rarely happens. The loyalty grows so fast with the Scry ability then the ultimate is a ton of damage. Highlight of the night was building new Nissa to ultimate then casting Nissa, Vital Force and making another animated land & bashing for a ton of damage. Achievement unlocked moment there. I wouldn’t hesitate to call this the #1 Simic card in Cube.
Never // Return was solid. Not as good as Hero’s Downfall but way better than Ruinous Path.
The Cycling Lands were actually disappointing. Most players didn’t cycle a single land. The blue ones are staying in the Cube but I don’t think I’m keeping the rest of the cycle.
Angel of Sanctions just isn’t necessary. It’s fine but that’s it. Really bummed about how this card did. The white 5-drop slot is so crowded & although the Embalm is cool I don’t think it’s worth it here.
Rhonas the Indomitable was just amazing. I thought this card had a lot of potential and it exceeded my expectations by a ton. It was played in every draft & it may have hit the field more than any other card in today’s drafts. Being easy to activate & always being a creature were two relevant factors. I’m actually ranking this as the best non-planeswalker in the set & everyone in our group mentioned how much the card that impressed them.
Glory-Bound Initiate was exerted often & was worthwhile. We cut Mistral Charger for this & am glad we did so far.
Vizier of the Menagerie is a card that can be inconsistent but it shined in many decks tonight. Played in every draft & even chained together multiple creatures which was fun to watch. It’s no Oracle of Mul Daya but I’d rank it as the #3 green 4-drop creature behind Oracle & Thrun. This was a card I was really happy to see succeed.
Samut, Voice of Dissent was in decks but didn’t hit play very much. Jury is still out on this but for now I’m slotting it as the 4th Gruul card.
Forsake the Worldly got cycled every time my opponent played it. I never saw it cast. My Cube is at the point where a card like Grasp of Fate is almost cut. Would we rather just keep Grasp in since it’s more flexible? I’m leaning toward yes & cutting Forsake.
Vizier of Many Faces may be one too many clone effects for my Cube but it’s just been really solid. Not sure if it will stick but you can justify this card at 540.
Combat Celebrant really feels like it needs haste. I had games tonight where it just sat in my hand. Another player (with a deck better suited for it) had a lot of success with it & its mere presence forced a removal spell or a victory for the exerting player.
Harsh Mentor was a scary scary card. I had just played 0/2 Jace & my opponent responded with this. I was forced to use removal because it was going to destroy me. This card will have high variance but I saw enough tonight to know the testing needs to continue.
Bloodrage Brawler did some fun things tonight like discard a huge creature then watch it get reanimated via Recurring Nightmare on turn 3.
Soul-Scar Mage got played in zero decks tonight. Not a good omen for a card I think is the worst red 1-drop in my Cube.
Hazoret the Fervent was animated a lot tonight. The haste portion was relevant more than you’d expect. Both the red & the green gods outperformed expectations. I’d test both at 540 and 450 if you’re looking for a change of pace. Player said “Hazoret did a ton of damage for me tonight.”
Commit//Memory sealed a game for me by memory lapsing a spell & not being able to have it cast for an extra turn. That was all the time I needed to win. Never saw the Memory part come into play.
Testing will continue on these cards though my personal life has prevented me from Cubing a ton. Overall a great set for Cube & really excited to get more time with the listed cards.
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This was my initial impression after one draft as well. After a couple more drafts with them in, it hasn't changed. I really like them as the fifth best land for the more controlling (ie blue) pairs, but at least for Rakdos and Gruul, I really miss the fast lands. Hitting play untapped in the early stages is way more important, imo, than the ability to cycle away in the later stages for the archetypes that usually come from those color pairs.
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I agree 100% in the case of Fetid Pools. The UW and UB ones have been excellent in those decks and are easily the fifth best land for those color pairs, no contest. I've also seen the RB one be pretty good in a Grixis list, but three color decks aren't what I'm looking to support in my two color guild sections. I think, when you're playing a more aggressive deck, the set back of ETB tapped early in the game far outweighs the potential pay off of being able to cycle it for value later in the game. Being fetchable is certainly a plus, even in the aggro decks, but again, ETB tapped just gives me the feel bads.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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I understand the desire to play with faster lands, and it's a fine decision. But for me, I've had a lot of success with the cycling lands so far. They've been great in grindier decks, and still quite solid for aggressive shells. Overall, I think their advantages outweigh their drawbacks, and I'm happy to keep playing the full friendly cycle.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
Glory-Bound Initiate
- As good as I expected, the exert is really good at pushing damage through bigger creatures and the life gain is very noticeable and he just breaks the aggro mirror when uncontested. Works extremely well with other pump effects. I don't see him going anywhere any time soon.
Trueheart Duelist
- Probably the best Embalm creature but that's not saying much. This is definitely in the lower tier of my current 2-drops. I like it more than Relic Seeker since this has decent discard / graveyard synergies and can hold equipment well. Will probably be replaced once a better 1W comes along, but I'm in no hurry to replace it with anything current.
Gideon of the Trials
- I've been playing with Gideon a lot lately and he's super solid. He's essentially a Maze of Ith that can turn into a 4/4 manland. I've re-added The Abyss with my artifact package and this plays extremely well in Abyss control shells since Gideon can contain any problematic artifact creatures that The Abyss can't kill. I joked a lot about Gideon Tribal.dec when this was released. While I've never used the Platinum Gideon ability yet, this stacks well with Maze of Ith / Gideon Jura if you're into defensive grindy decks.
Censor
- Really haven't seen it in action yet, but it's comparable enough to similar cards to where I think it will be staying in the cube for a bit.
Commit // Memory
- I think this might be the sleeper of the set. Being able to react to both any non-land permanent or spell on the stack is a very rare ability. Commit is versatility we haven't seen since Venser and having a random draw 7 has proved useful at times.
Pull from Tomrorow
- Haven't see in action yet : /
Dread Wanderer
- As good as advertised, Gravecrawler really benefits from not just from another zombie, but a zombie that can also recur itself.
Liliana, Death's Majesty
- She's been very good and I haven't even played her in a shell where she would shine most. Her reanimation ability is heavy value and being able to self-mill is extremely useful. I don't think I've seen her ceiling yet, but I've been liking what I've seen so far.
Never // Return
- Really haven't seen it in action yet, but I played enough Ruinous Path to know that this earns its keep.
Soul-Scar Mage
- I haven't seen this card in action much, so I haven't seen the Wither effect yet. I like it as my last red 1-drop though.
Harsh Mentor
- This has exceeded my expectations. It's almost always pinning something down, often times multiple things. Harsh Mentor hits almost exactly 20% of my current cards, would recommend if your cube is within that range.
Hazoret
- Have yet to see it in action
Manglehorn
- Pretty much knew what to expect from a strictly better Sex Monkeys, will say that the tap ability is pretty annoying since your opponent can't block right away with Wurmcoil Engine / Myr Battlesphere / etc.
Samut, Voice of Dissent
- Kind of lackluster compared to other green / red 5's. She has a high ceiling, but it's hard to even make the cut in decks where she can win out of nowhere. Will be replacing her with Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh in HOU.
Nissa, Steward of Elements
- I haven't seen her personally in my games, but I've spectated a lot of games where she's in and she seems fine. Wish I could see what the players were scrying though : /
Dual Lands
- These have been a hit. I'm playing all 5 right now and they're all useful. Being fetchable / cycleable / and having other benefits of being X land type outweigh the fact that they always ETB tapped, IMO.
CARDS THAT ALREADY GOT AXED
Angel of Sanctions
- Really didn't need another white 5-drop, I really wanted it to be good.
Glyph Keeper
- Too clunky, doesn't do anything well in particular.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
All the cycling lands are good. The ability to fetch them, get other land-type-centric effects to work, and be able to cycle them when unneeded is just big game. I won a game yesterday because I was able to cycle one away when I was flooded, and found an out I was looking for.
Liliana was very solid. It played both the grindy mode when needed, and it put an Atarka onto the battlefield in another matchup. It plays great as both a black midrange value 'walker and a reanimator support card.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
I actually have the literal exact opposite experience with Glyph Keeper. It literally won me a game/match, as my opponent was unable to efficiently answer/deal with it, and in other games it has been a huge problem. I think Glyph Keeper is my slepeer of the set.
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