MTG Salvation

Red
Wheel of Misfortune replacing Purphoros, God of the Forge

Green
Magus of the Order replacing Elvish Piper

Watching
A whole bunch of Monarch cards. I'm unsure yet if I want to introduce Monarch into the environment, and I'm not sure the density yet if I do, but I am interested in a lot of the cards, notably the 5 Courts.

I was also interested in Hullbreacher especially with Wheel of Fortune, Wheel of Misfortune, and Memory Jar in the cube, but I don't think I can fit it in at 360.

I'm sad to be cutting 2 pet cards, but happy about these additions.

Commander Legends Update:
Court of Grace IN, Aerial Responder OUT. This is one of the best repeatable card draw effects in white and it plays nicely into its token theme.
Court of Cunning IN, Patient Rebuilding OUT. I love giving blue players ways to win that don't require attacking. Aside from dedicated mill control decks, it can also be a self-mill enabler for Reanimator/Dredge/Thassa's Oracle strategies.
Court of Bounty IN, Harmonize OUT. Harmonize is generically powerful, but doesn't really work with any particular themes in green.

Supporting changes:
Feed the Swarm IN, Doom Blade OUT. This is to give mono-Black, Rakdos, and Dimir a cheap way to deal with powerful enchantments.
Setessan Champion IN, Warden of the First Tree OUT. I wish it was better on its own, but I want to increase the density of enchantress payoffs and there aren’t many payoffs with an acceptable floor.

White
Spectral Procession -> Court of Grace. I had trouble deciding on a cut for this, so I ended up choosing the mono-white token maker with the lowest ELO per CubeCobra's rankings.

Blue
Arcane Artisan -> Hullbreacher. Also largely ELO driven, but I'm also just not sure this additional cheaty card is needed in blue right now. A bit sad since this is kind of a neat interaction that is being missed, but alas.
Condescend -> Court of Cunning. I'm not sure about this court, but I'm erring on the side of including more of them.
Tezzeret, Artifice Master -> Fall from Favor. I currently have five blue planeswalkers at 630, and was having trouble finding a different cut.
Treasure Cruise -> Arcane Denial. Making this shift as I lean into the Narset/Leovold strategy. Also, Arcane Denial is technically in Commander Legends.

Red
Light Up the Stage -> Wheel of Misfortune.

Green
Cultivate -> Court of Bounty. I may cut Elvish Piper instead, but am not sure yet.

Multicolor
Not Commander Legends-specific, but with the addition of Hullbreacher, I'll be replacing Tasigur, the Golden Fang with Leovold, Emissary of Trest.

EDIT: I also plan to test Court of Ire, but haven't sorted out a cut for testing (and also don't know when I'll do much testing).

Definitely testing Emberwilde Captain, Hullbreacher, Opposition Agent, Court of Grace and Fall from Favor. Maybe Wheel as well.

Strong Cards I really Like + Helps weaker archetypes

Court of Grace - Excite to have a card that could give more aggressive archetypes an advantage over slower archetypes.
Magus of the Order - Pretty good include - provides redundancy to green cheat decks
Court of Cunning - Incredibly strong support card for Inverter, Breach and Reanimator.
Fall from Favor - This feels like the Treasure Cruise I really would like to see from my U based tempo decks

Watching:
Opposition Agent
Wheel of Misfortune

Adds:
Aven Mindcensor - Tutor Denial + Flash to Steal Monarchy
Spirit of the Labyrinth - Draw Denial
Gaddock Teeg - Combo Hate
Containment Priest - Combo Hate

- I was reluctant to add hate bears into my cube, but with combo, control and mass draw decks becoming this popular this might be necessary.

I don't really have the cuts sorted out, but since I don't get to play either way, I'll stay in the theorycrafting regime for now regarding this set.

One thing I have convinced myself of though is that I restrict Monarch effects to Red and White, serving as exclusive ways to draw cards for the colors with the most trouble drawing cards. I am tinkering with a way of introducing Big Red along the way, giving my Cube access to Red or Boros Control, utilizing the Monarch effects we got from this set alongside the one we have (Palace Jailer).

I like, roughly in order of preference:

Court of Grace
Fall from Favor
Hullbreacher
Wheel of Misfortune
Magus of the Order
Archon of Coronation

We might not find the room for all of those though.

I'm super curious about wheel of misfortune the most.
Card could range from broken to way overrated in my mind.

Would love to hear feedback from you guys on how well its playing out.
Basically doing nothing but HU cubes in these covid times so not getting much action these days.

Quote from Resarox »

I don't really have the cuts sorted out, but since I don't get to play either way, I'll stay in the theorycrafting regime for now regarding this set.

One thing I have convinced myself of though is that I restrict Monarch effects to Red and White, serving as exclusive ways to draw cards for the colors with the most trouble drawing cards. I am tinkering with a way of introducing Big Red along the way, giving my Cube access to Red or Boros Control, utilizing the Monarch effects we got from this set alongside the one we have (Palace Jailer).

I might just let the size of my cube grow (provided the power level across non-power 9 cards or more or less even) - it opens up new archetypes. I'm all for powerful cards, but it gets a bit ridiculous if every single game opens up Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Channel and the opponent could do nothing.

Fixing is my limiting factor right now - the pathway lands allows me to grow my cube by another 30-40 cards.

I will try:
Court of Grace
Court of Cunning
Fall from Favor

and actually Krark, the Thumbless. Besides being fun, getting effectively double the effect for double the price and pushing the spells matter theme a bit seems like a good deal, especially for two mana.

Personally, I am not that big on the Court cards. Cool, and powerful, just not in the way I want cool and powerful cards to be :shrug:. Wheel of Misfortune and Fall from Favor also don't really tug on my sleeve enough.

For my Core Cube
Hullbreacher
Emberwilde Captain

For my Commander Module
Opposition Agent
Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
Rootweaver Druid
Archelos, Lagoon Mystic
Jeweled Lotus
Phyrexian Triniform
Rejuvenating Springs
Spectator Seating
Undergrowth Stadium
Vault of Champions
Training Center

There's not a lot for me in this set as expected from a multiplayer oriented set. Reasonable Monarch cards were already a no for my group and I do not like having weird gimmicky keywords such as encore and partner.
The two cards I feel trying are Hullbreacher as an actual good card and Sweet-Gum Recluse which I like as an odd slot card. Wheel of Misfortune looks to be a good card too but I also feel it is a multiplayer card and I don't like having a Wheel of Fortune and a Wheel of Misfortune in my cube flavor wise.

These are the ones I'm interested in right now:

• Court of Grace
  
• Court of Cunning
  
• Fall from Favor
  
• Hullbreacher
  
• Opposition Agent

Are all the new cards spoiled yet, or are there more first-time-printings to come?

I don't see any changes in my classic cube but I have a few hits and misses for my Artifact Cube:

Slam dunks for synergies:
Armix, Filigree Thrasher an artifact, a golem, removal, scales with more artifacts, discard/GY synergy.
Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith equipment, tokens, removal.
Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer Golem tribal, token, +1/+1 counters, stax or sac payoff.

Maybe:
Dargo, the Shipwrecker - I want my colored cards to be engines, rather than payoffs, but this quite decent. 3 mana off 2 treasures.
Phyrexian Triniform - I love tokens in my cube, but 9 mana may to too much. This will be the most expensive AC in my cube if I ever include this.

Just missed:
Armored Skyhunter may whiff, so worse than direct tutors like Stoneforge Mystic or Stonehewer Giant
Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist Really like Puresteel Paladin more
Rebbec, Architect of Ascension less reliable than Leonin Abunas or Idomitable Archangel. I don't think I need a 3rd.
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator payoff is too low, but maybe if Treasure becomes a thing.
Glacian, Powerstone Engineer 6 Mana - deal breaker for these stats.
Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor - Lose a lot of board presence for card parity seems weak.

At 465 cards, the only card I'm adding to my cube is Court of Grace. Fall from Favor, Hullbreacher, Opposition Agent, and Court of Bounty are all on my radar too.

Cheers,
rant

Testing
Magus of the Order - Natural Order even a turn later and telegraphed is still quite potent even if not top tier.

Watching
Hullbreacher - Will watch but seems too narrow. Great for control mirrors, but not sure it's going to be much more than a worse Whisper Agent more often than not.
Wheel of Misfortune - I think this card is there on power level. My hesitation is over the play pattern it seems likely to create. Red decks can bet big and win either way. Opponent outbids you and they are within 1-2 turns of being dead from attacks or burn spells. You outbid your opponent - you reload your hand and have too much gas for them. Not sure this is a dynamic I want in my cube environment.

Leaning towards not including the monarch mechanic, but if I did include it, I think it would only be in mono-white with Court of Grace, Palace Jailer, and Archon of Coronation. The combat oriented pseudo-symmetrical nature of monarch feels very White to me and this would provide a new source of card advantage to a color sorely in need of it.

Finished my cube update on the blog!

https://andrewvisser.wixsite.com/cube/blog