Still figuring out cuts, but the cards that interested me are:
- Aether Channeler
- Cult Conscript
- Squee, Dubious Monarch
- Ertai Resurrected
- King Darien XLVIII
- Radha's Firebrand (maybe)
- Cut Down (maybe)
Dominaria United Update
DMU looks like a great set for cube enthusaiasts, with plenty of powerful and interesting options. Here are the ones I plan to include:
This is a decent cube set with 7 cards that I will at least personally test. Appreciate that the cube cards from this set will be relatively inexpensive to obtain as well with only Serra Paragon being likely to be a somewhat expensive pickup.
Awsome set for cube!
Ranked by my guess of the likelihood the card will be in my cube in 1 year time.
Auto-Include:
Aether channeler
90%+
Serra Paragon
75%+
Squee, dubious monarch
Cult Conscript (Chance I move away from aristocrats)
50%+
Tear Asunder
King Darien XLVIII
Evolved sleeper (I aggressively support aristocrats, otherwise it would be 90%)
Guardian of new benalia
Founding the third path
25%+
Ertai Ressurected
The cruelty of Gix
Soul of windgrace (amazed more people aren't talking about this card, but I recognize it's narrowness)
Annoited peacekeeper
Haughty Djinn
10%-
The elder dragon war
Radha's Firebrand
Sheoldred resurrected
Ajani, sleeper agent
Watching: (might test later)
Cut down
Uurg, spawn of turgg
Jaya, fiery negotiator
Leyline binding
Urza assembles the titans
Silverback elder
The world spell
Temporal firestorm
Guardian of New Benalia --> Seasoned Hallowblade
Serra Paragon --> Lyra Dawnbringer
Aether Channeler --> Sea Gate Stormcaller
Evolved Sleeper --> Knight of the Ebon Legion
Cut Down --> Dread Fugue
Squee, Dubious Monarch --> Feldon of the Third Path (might end up keeping Feldon and cutting a Rabblemaster variant)
Ertai Resurrected --> Thief of Sanity
Perhaps a better way of categorizing this list would be by how painful of a cut I'm making or would have to make to include these cards. I've gotten to the point where cards that I never dreamed of cutting are getting put on the chopping block. I'm almost thankful that G isn't getting anything so that I'm spared from having to make more cuts.
White Serra Paragon replacing Felidar Guardian (also Lili, Last Hope replacing Lili, Death's majesty - removing one combo from the cube. Parallax Wave and Kiki-Jiki staying)
Blue Aether Channeler replacing Mulldrifter. Sad about this cut, but I've already removed all my Man-o'-wars, and I think Soulherder will be happy to have Aether Channeler.
Land Thran Portal replacing Temple of the Dragon Queen. Dragonlord Atarka and Mutavault are the only dragons in the cube, so this should come in untapped significantly more often.
A little late to the party, because I've been traveling. Big shoutout to steve_man, whose HOT TAKES article above convinced me both to try the new Sheoldred and also to let go of Braids, Cabal Minion, whose efficacy has fallen off in recent years, especially at 630 where you can't expect to get both it and Smokestack in the same draft.
Based on early standard performance and limited experience from prerelease weekend my evaluations of a couple cards have changed. Preemptive disclaimer: I am aware that standard/limited performance doesn't directly translate to cube.
The biggest change is I've cooled down quite a bit on Evolved Sleeper. Thinking on exactly what it is that makes Figure of Destiny work so well where this doesn't - part of it is figure's final form is much more likely to close out a game and part of it is the types of decks that play Figure don't appear to suffer as much from investing into it.
Domain's stock has definitely gone up - especially for cubes running the triomes. A single triome cuts domain costs by 3. So a single Triome causes Radha's Firebrand's ability to go off on curve or Leyline Binding to become a Banishing Light with flash. Even if you don't run Triome's any combinations of 2 Dual/Shocks often puts your domain count at 3 or 4 by turn 2. As I don't run the OG dual-lands nor do I run triomes, I'm not sure if these will quite get there for me, but definitely something I think people need to look at their own cubes and evaluate.
Some quick early evaluations with cards I've seen for at least 2 cubes.
Note: everything I say is evaluated under the lense of a powered cube.
Tear Asunder - Was very interested in this card on spoil. Testing reinforced what I believed. Im more confident it's at least the second best golgari removal spell (abrupt decay #1) and an auto include if you have a loose guild classification system. It's so easy to splash for the kicker. Exile is very relevant,it's cost efficient and versatile. Powered cube only.
Serra Paragon Saw it in a broken UW black lotus deck and a GW agro deck. Was insane in the first deck and solid in the second. Gaining life clause was relevent in many games. Feel comfortable moving this to auto include territory.
Guardian of new benalia Was good but nothing special against a UR spells matter deck and poor against an artifact ramp deck with a lot of ground blockers. The scry on the enlist ability was relevalnt and so was it's low power and lack of evasion. Lower on it than before. Likely won't last for a year.
The Elder dragon war Sat on the sideboard of a Jund combo ramp deck.. would have been mediocore, but playable. Played in a UR spells deck. When all the modes were useful the card was decent, but too commonly the first 2 weren't useful. Pyroclasm is too low impact by turn 4, too often. I was on the fence testing it and now I feel comfortable cutting it.
Cruelty of Gix
Playing with it has reinforced my previous high opinion, if anything it's slightly exceeded it.
Read ahead is critical to what makes this card great. Played it in a Jund combo deck with channel/sneak attack and a couple reanimatable fatties.. I chose to play it over animate dead in my deck. Not enough consistent ways to get creatures in the yard and the second mode allowed me to tutor up combo pieces unrelated to reanimation. I cast it 4 times, twice I chose the 3rd mode, once I chose the 1st mode and once I chose the 2nd mode. Each time it was high impact.
It's been seeing a decent amount of standard play and some people are testing it in mono black coffers in modern.
Don't think it's 360 material, but it's a worthy test at 540.
Here's some of my findings over the past couple of weeks:
- The versatility of Aether Channeler shouldn't be underestimated, even in a Vintage cube environment. Being able to bounce any nonland permanent is pretty huge. Being able to bounce or make a 1/1 flyer can really help on both offense and defense, providing a decent tempo swing. Drawing a card is just always a good option to have.
- Cut Down is pretty solid, not much else to say there.
- Evolved Sleeper has been impressing a lot of people, I've seen its "level 3" ability used repeatedly in a good amount of matches.
- Sheoldred has also impressed a lot of people using it. Coolest things I've seen so far has been comboing it with Sylvan Library and coming back from being dead on board to casting Sheoldred / Wheel of Fortune when the opponent was at 16 and died on their draw step.
- I've been liking Ertai a good amount. His ability to deal with any problematic spells OR permanents on top of being a decent combat trick makes him very versatile. Essentially Venser on steroids.
- I've added a domain package (Leyline Binding / Evasive Action / Shadow Prophecy / Tribal Flames / Territorial Kavu) + triomes with the DMU update and that's been VERY popular. Shadow Prophecy especially has been overperforming, 3-cmc Fact or Fiction / Memory Deluge that is REALLY strong.
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StaffWHITE
- Guardian of New Benalia (maybe)
BLUE
- Aether Channeler
BLACK
- Evolved Sleeper
- Cut Down
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare (maybe)
- Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
RED
- The Elder Dragon War
- Jaya, Fiery Negotiator (maybe)
GREEN
crickets
OTHER
- Vohar, Voldatian Desecrator
- King Darien XLVIII
- Ertai Resurrected
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
- Aether Channeler
- Cult Conscript
- Squee, Dubious Monarch
- Ertai Resurrected
- King Darien XLVIII
- Radha's Firebrand (maybe)
- Cut Down (maybe)
DMU looks like a great set for cube enthusaiasts, with plenty of powerful and interesting options. Here are the ones I plan to include:
Serra Paragon over Porcelain Legionnaire
Aether Channeler over Archmage Emeritus
Haughty Djinn over Baral, Chief of Compliance
Cult Conscript over Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Shivan Devastator over Bonfire of the Damned
Squee, Dubious Monarch over Manaform Hellkite
Quirion Beastcaller over Ascendant Packleader
Ertai Resurrected over Dragonlord Silumgar
+ Aether Channeler
+ Cult Conscript
+ Squee, Dubious Monarch
Aether Channeler
Evolved Sleeper
Cult Conscript
Testing
Serra Paragon
Cut Down
Ertai Resurrected
King Darien XLVIII
Watching
Guardian of New Benalia
This is a decent cube set with 7 cards that I will at least personally test. Appreciate that the cube cards from this set will be relatively inexpensive to obtain as well with only Serra Paragon being likely to be a somewhat expensive pickup.
Ranked by my guess of the likelihood the card will be in my cube in 1 year time.
Auto-Include:
Aether channeler
90%+
Serra Paragon
75%+
Squee, dubious monarch
Cult Conscript (Chance I move away from aristocrats)
50%+
Tear Asunder
King Darien XLVIII
Evolved sleeper (I aggressively support aristocrats, otherwise it would be 90%)
Guardian of new benalia
Founding the third path
25%+
Ertai Ressurected
The cruelty of Gix
Soul of windgrace (amazed more people aren't talking about this card, but I recognize it's narrowness)
Annoited peacekeeper
Haughty Djinn
10%-
The elder dragon war
Radha's Firebrand
Sheoldred resurrected
Ajani, sleeper agent
Watching: (might test later)
Cut down
Uurg, spawn of turgg
Jaya, fiery negotiator
Leyline binding
Urza assembles the titans
Silverback elder
The world spell
Temporal firestorm
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
White:
Serra Paragon - Reviallark
Temporary Lockdown - Doomskar
Blue:
Aether Channeler - Hullbreecher
Black:
Evolved Sleeper - Rakdos Cackler
Cult Conscript - Night’s Whisper
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse - Gelatinous Cube
Red:
Squee, Dubious Monarch - Stormblood Berserker
Green:
None
Multi:
King Darien XLVIII - Knight of the Reliquary
Ertai Resurrected - Ashiok, Nightmare Muse
Un-Spiracy Module - http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/63204
Utility Land Module - http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/53258
Guardian of New Benalia --> Seasoned Hallowblade
Serra Paragon --> Lyra Dawnbringer
Aether Channeler --> Sea Gate Stormcaller
Evolved Sleeper --> Knight of the Ebon Legion
Cut Down --> Dread Fugue
Squee, Dubious Monarch --> Feldon of the Third Path (might end up keeping Feldon and cutting a Rabblemaster variant)
Ertai Resurrected --> Thief of Sanity
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
Follow me. I tweet.
Aether Channeler
Cult Conscript
Cut Down
Squee, Dubious Monarch
Testing:
Evolved Sleeper
Braids, Arisen Nightmare
Ertai Resurrected
Thran Portal
Watching:
Guardian of New Benalia
Serra Paragon
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Perhaps a better way of categorizing this list would be by how painful of a cut I'm making or would have to make to include these cards. I've gotten to the point where cards that I never dreamed of cutting are getting put on the chopping block. I'm almost thankful that G isn't getting anything so that I'm spared from having to make more cuts.
540 Version: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/zza
Blue
- Aether Channeler
Black
- Cut Down
- Cult Conscript
Testing
Black
- Evolved Sleeper
Rather small list for now.
WHITE
Guardian of New Benalia > Sungold Sentinel
Serra Paragon > Emiel the Blessed
BLUE
Aether Channeler > Man-o'-War
BLACK
Carrion Feeder > Cult Conscript
Evolved Sleeper > Tormented Hero
Braids, Arisen Nightmare > Drana, Liberator of Malakir
Cut Down > Doom Blade
RED
Radha's Firebrand > Lizard Blades
Squee, Dubious Monarch > Reckless Stormseeker
Jaya, Fiery Negotiator > Chandra, Flamecaller
The Elder Dragon War > Storm's Wrath
GREEN
Tail Swipe > Collected Company
GUILDS
Ertai Resurrected > Fallen Shinobi
King Darien XLVIII > Mirari's Wake
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/articles-podcasts-and-guides/827530-set-p-review-my-top-20-dominaria-united-dmu-cards
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!
Serra Paragon replacing Felidar Guardian (also Lili, Last Hope replacing Lili, Death's majesty - removing one combo from the cube. Parallax Wave and Kiki-Jiki staying)
Blue
Aether Channeler replacing Mulldrifter. Sad about this cut, but I've already removed all my Man-o'-wars, and I think Soulherder will be happy to have Aether Channeler.
Black
Evolved Sleeper replacing Okiba Reckoner Raid
Cult Conscript replacing Gutterbones. small upgrades to the one-drop black aggro section
Land
Thran Portal replacing Temple of the Dragon Queen. Dragonlord Atarka and Mutavault are the only dragons in the cube, so this should come in untapped significantly more often.
[180 classic cube]
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Staffhttps://cubecobra.com/content/article/630b7e3e1ca28750c32a78eb
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
White:
Charming Prince -> Guardian of New Benalia
Reveillark -> Serra Paragon (maybe Sun Titan instead)
Blue:
Sea-Dasher Octopus -> Aether Channeler
Black:
Blade of the Oni -> Cult Conscript
Concealing Curtains -> Evolved Sleeper
Braids, Cabal Minion -> Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Tourach, Dread Cantor -> Cut Down
Red:
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin -> Squee, Dubious Monarch
Green:
None!
Multicolor:
Gyruda, Doom of Depths -> Ertai Resurrected
Colorless:
Porcelain Legionnaire -> Thran Portal
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
Include
Blue
- Aether Channeler
Black
- Cut Down
- Cult Conscript
Red
- Squee, Dubious Monarch
Testing
White
- Serra Paragon
Black
- Evolved Sleeper
My cube
My cube on Cube tutor
I'm OP_Forever. I'll be putting this in my signature for a while so everyone know I change my nickname.
The biggest change is I've cooled down quite a bit on Evolved Sleeper. Thinking on exactly what it is that makes Figure of Destiny work so well where this doesn't - part of it is figure's final form is much more likely to close out a game and part of it is the types of decks that play Figure don't appear to suffer as much from investing into it.
Domain's stock has definitely gone up - especially for cubes running the triomes. A single triome cuts domain costs by 3. So a single Triome causes Radha's Firebrand's ability to go off on curve or Leyline Binding to become a Banishing Light with flash. Even if you don't run Triome's any combinations of 2 Dual/Shocks often puts your domain count at 3 or 4 by turn 2. As I don't run the OG dual-lands nor do I run triomes, I'm not sure if these will quite get there for me, but definitely something I think people need to look at their own cubes and evaluate.
Note: everything I say is evaluated under the lense of a powered cube.
Tear Asunder - Was very interested in this card on spoil. Testing reinforced what I believed. Im more confident it's at least the second best golgari removal spell (abrupt decay #1) and an auto include if you have a loose guild classification system. It's so easy to splash for the kicker. Exile is very relevant,it's cost efficient and versatile. Powered cube only.
Serra Paragon Saw it in a broken UW black lotus deck and a GW agro deck. Was insane in the first deck and solid in the second. Gaining life clause was relevent in many games. Feel comfortable moving this to auto include territory.
Guardian of new benalia Was good but nothing special against a UR spells matter deck and poor against an artifact ramp deck with a lot of ground blockers. The scry on the enlist ability was relevalnt and so was it's low power and lack of evasion. Lower on it than before. Likely won't last for a year.
The Elder dragon war Sat on the sideboard of a Jund combo ramp deck.. would have been mediocore, but playable. Played in a UR spells deck. When all the modes were useful the card was decent, but too commonly the first 2 weren't useful. Pyroclasm is too low impact by turn 4, too often. I was on the fence testing it and now I feel comfortable cutting it.
Cruelty of Gix
Playing with it has reinforced my previous high opinion, if anything it's slightly exceeded it.
Read ahead is critical to what makes this card great. Played it in a Jund combo deck with channel/sneak attack and a couple reanimatable fatties.. I chose to play it over animate dead in my deck. Not enough consistent ways to get creatures in the yard and the second mode allowed me to tutor up combo pieces unrelated to reanimation. I cast it 4 times, twice I chose the 3rd mode, once I chose the 1st mode and once I chose the 2nd mode. Each time it was high impact.
It's been seeing a decent amount of standard play and some people are testing it in mono black coffers in modern.
Don't think it's 360 material, but it's a worthy test at 540.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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Staff- The versatility of Aether Channeler shouldn't be underestimated, even in a Vintage cube environment. Being able to bounce any nonland permanent is pretty huge. Being able to bounce or make a 1/1 flyer can really help on both offense and defense, providing a decent tempo swing. Drawing a card is just always a good option to have.
- Cut Down is pretty solid, not much else to say there.
- Evolved Sleeper has been impressing a lot of people, I've seen its "level 3" ability used repeatedly in a good amount of matches.
- Sheoldred has also impressed a lot of people using it. Coolest things I've seen so far has been comboing it with Sylvan Library and coming back from being dead on board to casting Sheoldred / Wheel of Fortune when the opponent was at 16 and died on their draw step.
- I've been liking Ertai a good amount. His ability to deal with any problematic spells OR permanents on top of being a decent combat trick makes him very versatile. Essentially Venser on steroids.
- I've added a domain package (Leyline Binding / Evasive Action / Shadow Prophecy / Tribal Flames / Territorial Kavu) + triomes with the DMU update and that's been VERY popular. Shadow Prophecy especially has been overperforming, 3-cmc Fact or Fiction / Memory Deluge that is REALLY strong.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra