MTG Salvation

There were several leaks a while back that are all-but-confirmed given what we now know about Phyrexia: All Will Be One.

Of these, Furnace Punisher looks the most interesting, though I imagine it would be difficult to find an opponent it would reliably trigger against.

You might get somebody once with Furnace Punisher the first upkeep after you cast it on turn 3, especially on the play. I like the idea of punishing greedy mana bases, but two basics is a real low bar to clear.
Myr Convert is just a slight downgrade on Ornithopter of Paradise, right? Paying 2 life for mana is bad, but the 2/1 body should prove more relevant than the 0/2 flier.

I think I like Ornithopter of Paradise significantly more. Being a 0/2 in the air walls small flyers like spirit tokens, and Myr being a 2/1 without protection also means it is more fragile to pingers or -1/-1 counters, unlike green counterpart Paradise Druid. Also paying 2 life is steep, I find myself in situations where City of Brass lifeloss actually matters, and 2 is a lot more than 1. I do like the card and colourless manafix is premium, especially in the 2 mana slot, but I don't know if I like it more than my current suite.

Cankerbloom is an easy include.
1G
Creature - Phyrexian Fungus
1, Sac: Choose one:
-Destroy target artifact
-Destroy target enchantment
-Proliferate
3/2

Talk about power creep.

That's a really good card for us yeah. The only question for me is which of my other green artifact/enchantment hate guys I want to cut. Thrashing Brontodon seems the obvious choice, but do any of you guys have more experience with Kappa Tech-Wrecker? We haven't been able to play as much lately, so we haven't tested him that much yet.

Cankerbloom is definitely getting added.

Our group has cubed a bit since NEO and tech-wrecker hasn't really done much of note. I might cut that instead of Brontodon, especially since one of my players really like the dinosaur.

Are people even still playing bronto when outland liberator exists? I'm cutting liberator for this guy.

I didn't want Day/Night in my cube. It's rarely relevant and a pain to track in paper. I agree Liberator is a more efficient version of Brontodon's effect though.

Tracking day/night every turn for one card just in case someone regrowths it later was a complete nonstarter for me.

Tech wrecker has been great for me. Brontodon is a decently statted but bad vanilla creature when it isn't naturalizing, which has to kill itself in order to be worth playing. Not a terrible magic card of course, but I would play it after like 5 other choices including Wilt and even Acidic Slime. (They really should have made a DFC naturalize)

I dropped Liberator for exactly the day/night tracking reason Leelue mentioned. Last cube night I tried to explain how Day/Night worked to someone who hasn't played much over the past couple years and he straight removed the card from his deck. Day/Night is an example of a mechanic that works great on digital and while it does translate to paper, it doesn't translate very well.

With that said, though, Cankerbloom is probably the best of the three for that effect.

I'll add my vote to hating day/night as a mechanic, but on top of that, I have avoided all DFCs in my cube because I don't want the hassle of players unsleeving/resleeving or having to use a checklist card. I'll play them in my own Commander decks, but I just don't want other people messing with my sleeves.

Wow, Cankerbloom is some stupid power creep. I'll totally run it as it provides an answer AND an efficient beater AND a proliferate tool, but good grief.

Real spoilers (not just leaks) are finally here. Two previewed cards stood out so far:

Ossification- Mostly another Journey to Nowhere, but very slightly different. I counted 5 (of 512) cards that have extra interaction because of the enchant Land text, which is worse than normal. It also hits 2 (of 512) extra cards, so it is close to evening out. Journey is reasonably popular, so I imagine this also lands in a few Cubes.

Experimental Augury- Anticipate with Proliferate. Proliferate is a pretty strong upside for this kind of effect, but you need the right Cube to make it glisten. Even without the blue support, worth including if your cube pushes for counters in other colors.

I don't run Journey to Nowhere and Ossification is almost the same card and only a sidegrade anyway I'd say, so I'm not interested. But it's not a bad card.

Proliferate is simply something that is close to useless in blue, at least in my cube. Sure, combined with other colors like white or green it could be very playable, but I try to avoid mono color cards that work like guild cards if I can help it and Anticipate on its own is simply not good enough.

I also like Bladehold War-Whip as support for Boros equipment decks. An Iroas's Champion with an equip cost reduction that leaves an equipment and the cost reduction ability behind is pretty good.

Quote from rancoredmalone »

Experimental Augury- Anticipate with Proliferate. Proliferate is a pretty strong upside for this kind of effect, but you need the right Cube to make it glisten. Even without the blue support, worth including if your cube pushes for counters in other colors.

I see what you did there Malone, and I like it.

Sheoldred's Edict is an instant speed edict for two mana that doesn't target, can snipe a walker (if you're cubing the walkers), and let's you choose between token and non-token creatures. I'm not big on edicts in general, but this seemed unique enough to at least mention.

Bladehold War-Whip's equip cost seems unnecessarily excessive. But, attaching Skullclamp and Bonesplitter for free is really good.

IMO there was absolutely no reason to make the game track Day/Night changes without a relevant permanent or applicable effect being. Just let it remain whatever it is currently set at.

For some reason the gave Day and Night the flip conditions inherently, even though Daybound and Nightbound could just have the condition built in.

If I'd been part of the design team I would've put my badge on the table and been prepared to walk over this decision.

Quote from vertigo451 »

Bladehold War-Whip's equip cost seems unnecessarily excessive. But, attaching Skullclamp and Bonesplitter for free is really good.

Yes, the equip cost is insanely expensive, but it would be way too good if the equipment was a Fireshrieker or close to it (like an equip cost of 1WR). Still, it can be a late game mana sink (assuming you have a creature on the board) like Recruitment Officer's ability and the rest of the package is pretty great on its own already even if you never equip it to another creature. Pretty sure I will test it.

The competition for white one-drop creatures is tough these days with all the new Savannah Lions variants, but if you're like me and the 4-5 people who run Healer's Hawk or Battlefield Raptor, we have a new option in Swooping Lookout, which is a 1/2 flier with vigilance for W.

Long time lurker and first time poster.

I run Topplegeist alongside all of the white 2/1 one-drop creatures. I could see Swooping Lookout being a replacement but I also like that Geist can be a relevant top-deck late in the game by taking out a blocker.

Obviously Cankerbloom is the biggest hit so far. I also am excited for Bladehold War-Whip and will be cutting one of Koll, the Forgemaster or Reyav, Master Smith to make room. I think Reyav is the better card but could be redundant alongside War-Whip and Kor Blademaster. Anyone thinking about this sort of a swap as well?

I do run battlefield raptor it gets nasty once you start pumping it, The advantage for Swooping Lookout is that it works with my artifact aggro cards.

I think that the Bladehold War-Whip is nuts 3 mana 2/2 doublestrike but not enough for me to want to change up my RW cards to be more equipment focused atm it's a bunch of random cards and not really what that colour combo is about.

Mostly a bit disappointing so far, cards seem too niche I don't want to add toxic to my cube.

The card you are all taking about doesn't appear to be officially spoiled yet so I haven't seen it.

Unnatural Restoration does not seem bad, but I still prefer Regrowth. Guess it depends on how hard you want to push counters.

Quote from Poster formerly known as Phitt77 »

Yes, the equip cost is insanely expensive, but it would be way too good if the equipment was a Fireshrieker or close to it (like an equip cost of 1WR). Still, it can be a late game mana sink (assuming you have a creature on the board) like Recruitment Officer's ability and the rest of the package is pretty great on its own already even if you never equip it to another creature. Pretty sure I will test it.

I agree and I will test as well. I wonder if at some point in design the mana reduction clause applied to its equip cost as well. 4 mana seems more reasonable.

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A few more cards:

Planar Disruption is a significant upgrade to Pacifism. Seems worth testing, especially given its ability to hit planeswalkers and artifacts and for removal diversity (not another O-Ring variant).

Hexgold Halberd is perfectly reasonable if you want to push equipment matters in Red or Boros.

Gleeful Demolition is a more interesting take on Kuldotha Rebirth. In addition to not requiring you to sacrifice your artifact (so you can target indestructible artifacts), Gleeful Demolition can always be used as a Shatter in a pinch. I do not think I have the artifact density, but I appreciate the flexibility.

Evolved Adaptation - Generally this will be a worse Experiment One since it cannot regenerate and Oil counters do not synergize with +1/+1 counters (i.e. Conclave Mentor). Still, it may work in green aggro if your cube supports that.

Quote from vertigo451 »

Unnatural Restoration does not seem bad, but I still prefer Regrowth. Guess it depends on how hard you want to push counters.

Agreed, I also still prefer Regrowth. More flexible, more iconic and I really like it alongside Spider Spawning.

I'll be trying out Hexgold Halberd for sure. I still think For Mirrodin! is too goofy and wish they had gone with something more setting agnostic but I expect the card to be good.

How do people feel about aura-based removal like Planar Disruption? I think there is just a little too much blink and bounce and self-sacrifice effects to make it reliable removal. It definitely outclasses Pacifism, which was down to just 3 cubes per the 2022 year-end analysis.

I think Tyvar's Stand is an interesting take on that effect. A single G gives you protection with hexproof/indestructible and then scales late-game. I still think Blossoming Defense is better since you get the pump to win combat at one mana. Plus, there are no real non-toughness based sweepers in Peasant, so hexproof and +2/+2 should still beat most removal.

EDIT: The whole spoiler (minus just a few mythics) has been leaked in Spanish via a YouTube video. I want to be cautious about discussing leaks, partially because I do not want to use the wrong card tag and part because I do not want to ruin the fun for others.

So I ask, do people care about discussing leaks in here? I suppose the first set of cards we got were leaks too.

Leaks are fine, a lot of threads start with them.

Atraxas Skitterfang one of the leaked cards seems quite good 2/2 for 3 is a little weak but it can just give keywords to any creature.