MTG Salvation

It is interesting but I am not sure how fast it is going to grow, casting two spells I feel is harder than just casting a non-green spell Quirion Dryad. It seems good in BW and BR aggro I guess.

I like Firja, Judge of Valor though since it feeds itself.

Inga Rune-Eyes seems good to me a bit expensive and the second ability isn't really a Blue ability in my cube but I like the raw power here.


Bloodline Pretender This is a rally nice colourless creature trigger it twice and it's actively good.


Tormentor's Helm and Giant's Amulet actually seem good to me, obviously being colour locked makes them weaker than straight colourless versions but they feel like upsides.

I like that changeling is in blue-green in this set because I have wizards in blue and elves in green

Basalt Ravager

Basalt Ravager 3R
Creature - Giant Wizard
When Basalt Ravager enters the battlefield, it deals X damage to any target, where X is the greatest number of ceatures you control that have a creature type in common.
4/2

I like it, probably borderline, but Wizards, Goblins, Humans, Warriors... Are tribes easy to assemble to have here a payoff for them. Maybe winmore?

Funeral Longboat has pretty decent stats for a common equipment.

Wings of the Cosmos is an interesting combat trick. It can be used offensively or defensively to grant flying, offers a decent toughness boost to help ensure survival, and it untaps the creature for surprise blocks or pseudo-vigilance. All for one mana. I've never considered Vault Skyward (no buff) or Vines of the Recluse (only defensive), but this might have enough value to make it worth it.

Goldvein Pick is interesting. It's going in my Tiny Leaders cube, but I'm not sure about Peasant. Putting it on a creature with flying or shadow is great, but if you're not getting through, it's just a more expensive Leonin Scimitar. Fortunately, it only takes one hit to pay for the difference.

And Clarion Spirit may be the first of the second-spell cards that I would consider, but I'm not really sure I like the mechanic.

Duskwielder is sadly an inferior Vicious Conquistador, though if the Elf type is relevant, I guess it could be compared to Thornbow Archer. Having to pay more mana for the ability isn't good.

Shepherd of the Cosmos

Shepherd of the Cosmos 4WW
Creature - Angel Warrior

Flying
When “Shepherd of the Cosmos” enters the battlefield, return target permanent each with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Foretell {3}{w} (During your turn, you may pay {2} and exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost.)
3/3

Our Sun Titan?

It's more like a bad version of Custodi Squire. Would consider it if it was 4/4.

Aegar, the Freezing Flame is neat, but probably not worth building around or including in such a stacked guild.

Clarion Spirit looks okay, but I have incredibly low hopes for the second spell mechanic. Optimistically you might be able to always trigger it once, which makes it above rate, but I'm really suspect of that.

Shepard of the Cosmos is worth about 5 mana, but you always pay 6. This type of reanimation is also surprisingly hard to trigger at times.

If you can get mileage out of the first chapter Kardur's Vicious Return looks pretty solid in reanimator and aristocrats. Notably the third chapter can get back something like a Havoc Jester (as a 6/6 haste), then the saga sacs itself for a ping off the Havoc Jester.

Tergrid's Shadow is a 5 mana version of Barter in Blood, but is instant speed and has foretell. Is anyone who's playing Barter in Blood considering swapping (or playing both)?

Quote from Purplemurasaki »

Tergrid's Shadow is a 5 mana version of Barter in Blood, but is instant speed and has foretell. Is anyone who's playing Barter in Blood considering swapping (or playing both)?

I changed Barter in blood with Feast of Succesion.

Quote from Purplemurasaki »

I have incredibly low hopes for the second spell mechanic.

Same. I forces timing when you might prefer flexibility, and the payoffs don't seem big enough.

Quote from Purplemurasaki »

Tergrid's Shadow is a 5 mana version of Barter in Blood, but is instant speed and has foretell. Is anyone who's playing Barter in Blood considering swapping (or playing both)?

I run Barter in Blood, but I have no intentions of switching. Instant is great, but I'm usually leery of 5 mana Instants, as it often requires skipping an entire turn. Additionally, the foretell cost doesn't even get lower than Barter, meaning you pay 6 total, which may necessitate skipping two turns - one early to foretell it and one later to cast it.

I am very happy with a lot of the snow support in this set so far, although nothing has yet blown me away.
The closest would probably be this 1/3 for 1U that lets you turn your snow lands into 4/4 hexproof creatures until EOT for 2. That is a TON of quick pressure to turn a corner and close out a game. Plus, it makes it super hard to attack you if you have 3 lands up and can make an immediate 4/4 hexproof blocker.

I am also hyped for Narfi, Betrayer King, a nicely sized recurring threat with some upside if you have Zombies and/or Snow creatures (like Zombie Musher). Dimir is a reasonably tough guild to crack, but I am sure to find room for a jumbo Reassembling Skeleton.

Other quick thoughts on prior cards spoiled:
Re: Saw It Coming- Maybe my 4th favorite 1UU counter, behind Neutralize, Sinister Sabotage and Forbid.
Re: Basalt Ravager- My main issue is that I have so few Giants and Wizards. You need at least two *other* creatures that share a type to get a decent return.

Narfi is a cool one I hadn't seen yet, very well might make mine, not super high on Dimir cards outside of Strix and Infiltrator.

Wow, we have new staples.

I would not say that Poison the Cup is a staple but Usher of the Fallen sure is. That's pretty crazy for a 2-power 1-drop.

Given my early skepticism about the tribal stuff (which I think remains largely unusable), I have been really positively surprised by this set. There are also quite a few commons that I am considering like the self-pump-regenerate snow troll.

Poison the Cup may not be a staple as in 'goes into every cube no matter what', but it sure is an interesting black removal spell and I will find room for it since I run both Go for the Throat and Cast Down.

Usher the Fallen is indeed crazy. And in red we still have nothing truly better than Jackal Pup...

Ooh - yeah, Usher of the Fallen is pretty amazing. Frankly, I'm surprised they made the ability only 2 Mana. I guess because they expect a 1 toughness creature to die if it attacks?

Usher of the Fallen is certainly a staple but I think <50% of the time the card hits the battlefield will the ability actually be used. And less than <20% of the time if it's a turn 1 play. You just don't want to be spending your mana this way on early turns.

Quote from MarthMarthMarth »

Usher of the Fallen is certainly a staple but I think <50% of the time the card hits the battlefield will the ability actually be used. And less than <20% of the time if it's a turn 1 play. You just don't want to be spending your mana this way on early turns.

Sure, but seeing how white one drops evolved is pretty amazing. From Savannah Lions (and friends), which is still playable even today, to 2/1 with tiny upside like Mardu Woe-Reaper or Dragon Hunter to cards with a potentially powerful upside like Dauntless Bodyguard and now Usher of the Fallen. They're still one drops, so there is a limit to what you can expect, but these cards are better than what rare cubes had in that department a few years ago only.

Only wish they would give red and black (which is ok at least) one drops a similar treatment at uncommon level.

EDIT: And red gets Fearless Liberator, which isn't really better than Usher, but costs two mana instead of one...

Not a fan of all the tribal stuff or snow, so this set has been really lacking so far.

Is the ranking for white 2/1 for 1 Dauntless Bodyguard > Usher of the Fallen > Skymarcher Aspirant = Mardu Woe-Reaper = Dryad Militant > everything else?

Quote from Frozen_In_Ice »

Is the ranking for white 2/1 for 1 Dauntless Bodyguard > Usher of the Fallen > Skymarcher Aspirant = Mardu Woe-Reaper = Dryad Militant > everything else?

My top:
1.Usher of the Fallen
2. Skymarcher Aspirant
3. Dauntless Bodyguard
4. Dryad Militant
5. Venerable Knight
6. Mardu Woe-Reaper

5th and 6th are similar for me, but a +1 counter is more valuable and there several playable knights in Peasant Cube.

Whereas I rank Mardu Woe-Reaper higher than either of you because A) it's an ETB I can repeat, B) it's an answer to potentially abusive reanimation, and C) I have a mini Warrior subtheme going. I ended up dropping Skymarcher Aspirant when Dauntless Bodyguard came out.

It's pretty amazing that we have so many 2/1s for one that we have to pick and choose because there aren't enough slots.

I'm thinking I'll need to find room for Usher, though.

Most of the ability lands are stupidly expensive, but Axgard Armory has a few things going for it: 5 mana for 2 spells on a utility land is great, R and W auras are pretty common and versatile, and RW doesn't have much competition for guild slots. You might have to stretch a bit for playable equipment, but even ignoring the top tier of equipment Ancestral Blade, Sylvok Lifestaff, or Mask of Memory aren't embarrassing things to fetch (and if you don't ignore the top tier equipment fetching Loxodon Warhammer is a big deal).

Poison the Cup is solid removal diversification.

Usher of the Fallen is obviously great. The ability probably won't matter in most games but will probably come up more than the rest of the other W one drops' abilities. Late game you can try to trade and get a free token, and in aggro mirrors attacking on t2 and boasting is probably entirely reasonable. Warrior is also a pseudo relevant creature type. Only problem I have with it is that the name doesn't sound like a creature to me.

Scorn Effigy is basically a colourless version of the black 2/3s that etbt. While black has moved past those, this has some novelty between being an artifact, a free spell, and colourless.

Wow, Fynn, the Fangbearer is a pushed uncommon! Outside of cube, he can be insane.

In a cube, it's a different story. 1G for a 1/3 deathtouch is pretty good. Three toughness means he could survive some encounters. The poison ability is really only relevant if you have other deathtouchers (you need to connect five times without being blocked), as 8 poison is irrelevant unless they can get in the final swing. So, how many deathtouchers are people running? I have 16 cards that have or grant deathtouch, and that's not enough to support this card, even if I wanted to introduce poison to my cube, which I don't think I do. So, not a card I'd add, but I'm curious what others think of him.

Don't spend any thoughts on getting the deathtouch-for-poison to work.

//

A few of the creatures with the snow abilities become pretty wild in the late game. Avalanche Caller is almost impossible to attack into if you have 3 open mana, meaning your instant draw spells and counterspells beat aggro in what is normally a losing rock vs paper matchup.

Narfi, Betrayer King probably can't break into dimir, but it provides a lot of value to looters and self mill. It's quite hard for a 4/3 to be irrelevant, so I could imagine it pulling a Rite of the raging flame impersonation.

Boreal Outrider is Grumgully the generous, trading the arbitrary exclusion of humans for the more tangibly disappointing exclusion of tokens. Fitting in a monocolored slot, this one probably makes it for me unless I've hit a saturation point with these types of effects.

Maja, Bretagard Protector

2GWW
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Other creatures you control get +1/+1.
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, create a 1/1 white Human Warrior creature token.
2/3

Great signpost for a tokens archetype. Maybe 1 mana expensive, but really solid.

Not to be overly negative, but I think that the tokens archetype is the one archetype that doesn't require a signpost. So the value of including a card partly on that kind of merit is probably unwarranted.

That being said, 5 mana is a lot for an anthem, and by your sixth turn you only have a 55% chance of having a 6th land to make a 2/2 with. a 45% chance of it just being a 2/3 that anthems for 5 mana in a gold slot is bad news.

I don't think I can bring myself to the jankyness of cubeing with snow lands but this set definatly brings strong arguments.

Maybe if i had a stack of coldsnap lands floating around since those are clearly the best.