MTG Salvation

Surprised to not see a thread about this yet. I'm of the opinion that swords are too slow for cube nowadays, but this is definitely one of the best we've seen and I find protection from instants and sorceries much more interesting than protection from colors (I really don't like how protection from colors wins the game against some decks and does nothing against others). I don't like how this sword does basically nothing if you don't have a spell in hand, but if you even have just a bolt it goes off. I think it's slightly worse than fire and ice still, but I would have this as the second best sword ahead of body and mind.

For those that don't know (I didn't), commit a crime targeting your opponent or anything they control (essentially) so in addition to normal draw spells removal will also pump this creature.

Quote from Cythare »

I don’t feel like rad counters are that much of an issue, even without the reminder text. It feels like it’s about as complex as the monarch (a little more complex, but goes away or can just end the game with this card). It’s definitely less complex than initiative/the ring tempts you/daybound.


That said, I dislike that they’re called rad counters but that the reminder card says “radiation”.

It's more that it's just another thing players have to internalize for a couple (at most) cards because the card doesn't tell you what it does. Monarch is extremely easy to internalize because the payoff is just draw a card and the swap condition is simple.

Initiative is not really easy to internalize (if you asked me what all the rooms in the dungeon do I honestly couldn't tell you), but it's easy to remember that it's very strong and there's enough density of high power cards with initiative that it's worth the squeeze.

Rads are another "upkeep" trigger (although it's main phase 1 like sagas for some reasons - I assume to avoid the feel bad of milling a card you scryed to the top?) to keep track of that will have no impact on the game most of the time, is not really easy to remember (you mill and then based on what you mill different things happen, oh and you have to mill a different number of cards next turn based on what you mill), and both players have to track the thing.

Now, if an absurdly powerful and unique card is in one of these decks that uses rads, will I run it? Yeah, and I'll probably consider running this at that point too. But while a scalable languish is certainly powerful, it's not powerful or unique enough to make me want to deal with the mechanic alone. And I'm further frustrated by the fact that this card could have just been in Modern Horizons 3 and completely omitted the rad text and still been great, the only reason it has the rad text is because it has to fit the flavor of the UB fallout decks.

Edit - I also don't run any of the "ring tempts you" cards for the same reason. There are certainly some that are on the edge power level wise, but the ring is annoying to remember and not worth it for me.

Quote from Alan Yuan »

Oh this looks incredible. Languish has been a good card and this is basically Languish with mostly upside.

Even though on balance Rads are a downside for the control deck, I think being scalable is a big enough upside that I'm safe saying this is just a better Languish, so if you are running languish this is an upgrade.

Even if I was running Languish, though, I really wouldn't want to deal with Rad Counters, especially since neither version of the card has reminder text.

Thanks as always for these! As I've said before, they are so helpful when I'm returning to sets to see if I missed any cards that were worth adding.

Quote from TheGroglord »

Cloak makes a 2/2 with ward 2, if that changes your evaluation. 3 mana for a 2/2 ward 2 isn't the worst base rate. The ward will help it stick till you can flip it.

Your right though, so many creatures have their power in an ETB that uncloaking/flipping them becomes a pretty poor rate if its just for the stat bump.

I completely forgot cloak gave ward 2 (poor manifest, getting outclassed lol). That does make it better, but not enough better. This is one of those cards (absent needing it for artifact synergies) that I consider "air" - never bad, but never more than fine and not worth taking a limited cube slot.

Quote from LearnedLurker »

Quote from asmallcat »

Incredibly efficient beater (elf/bird into this into attack for 4 is a pretty strong open), but I find most simic decks I and my players draft aren't beatdown.


Still, a lot of Gxx decks would love this. Will probably test....

In that scenario, you can actually swing for 8, by bringing the mana dork along for the ride and making it a 4/4 as well. It's not even that far into Magical Christmasland, since you just need this guy and any dork.

Lol I knew it was 8, the point I was making (in my head) was how powerful it was to be attacking for 8 on turn 3, and my brain just typed 4. Good times.

It's been a minute since I ran evolving wilds, but have to admit I didn't expect a strictly better version to be printed.

I think I'd rather have questing beast at 5 than this card, which shows where I am on it.

Not to mention my green 5's have nothing I'd want to cut for this card. Even for what I think is the weakest, Biogenic Ooze, just absolutely takes over the game and leaves value behind if your opponent kills it. Sure, this gets to hit for 5 immediately, but I have only 4 humans in green and so this is basically just its stats.

I think this is easily the best of the 2nd tier of aggressive white 1-drops (behind Isamu, Bodyguard, Kytheon, and Usher). The spell half is real - if your opponent stabilizes with something like Batterskull it represents 3+ damage you're able to get through, which is WAY more than most of the W 1-drops can do when you draw them late. Yeah, it's less good on T1 than most of the other options, but I think having actual late game use makes up for that. I think it's way better than the fringe ability 2/1 like Woe-Reaper or Soldier of the Pantheon.

Quote from asmallcat »

For those that don't know (I didn't), commit a crime targeting your opponent or anything they control (essentially) so in addition to normal draw spells removal will also pump this creature.

Counterspells work too which is pretty important for U. And so do abilities so you can loot a bunch with like, relic of progenitus taps or something.


Definitely a cool looter variant for U, I think the evasive vigilant body will be nough to get there even if the stats are sometimes low

I like K Command the most, but I also love Daretti. I'd find a way to play both of those in addition to the Defiler if you can.

Quote from asmallcat »

Valki God of Lies v Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast v Kolaghan's Command, pick one.

Other cards in section are Fire Covenant and Chaos Defiler (Covenant is being tested, may not stay).

Valki in distant last.

I think Kcommand , daretti and fire covenant are pretty close. Depends a lot on your cube. How deep on artifacts you on, how much you support agro etc.

I have fire covenant (barely) in last place out of those cards, but the people I've been cubing with recently have it as their #1 red/black card *shrug*.

The cube is competitive (players are high skill and trying to win more than trying to have fun), there's a lot of people fighting for white/initiative and the red section is very dense with creatures. There's a lot of cheap creature decks running around which fire covenant excels vs. It's also a little lighter on artifacts than my own or the mtgo vintage cube, so kcommand and daretti's stock drops a bit.

Daretti is the most "interesting" card to me out of all them for what that's worth

Quote from asmallcat »

Valki God of Lies v Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast v Kolaghan's Command, pick one.

Other cards in section are Fire Covenant and Chaos Defiler (Covenant is being tested, may not stay).

K command > Daretti > Valki.

Quote from rantipole »

Once again, thanks for writing these reviews! I'm sorry I don't have anything insightful to say here. It's just not a good set for cube, so I got nothin'. With a 465-card cube, this set is a total bust.

Cheers,
rant

Ya, this one was nice on the ol' wallet at least.

Quote from Alan Yuan »

This was just a terrible set. Escape Tunnel is likely the only card I’ll be adding - I’m an advocate for evolving wilds variants

Who doesn't like a good Evolving Wilds variant?

Quote from MadRobot »

Huge props to you for finding 20 cards in this set worth talking about. Bringing back Morph in 2024... good grief.

The supplemental sets (CLU, MKC) had a few decent hits for cubes of smaller sizes, but ya... not an impressive main set for cubes.

Huge props to you for finding 20 cards in this set worth talking about. Bringing back Morph in 2024... good grief.

This was just a terrible set. Escape Tunnel is likely the only card I’ll be adding - I’m an advocate for evolving wilds variants