MTG Salvation

50 reviews.. for more than a decade..? Wow kudos to you!

Admittedly I am not a fan of the flavor of the set but this it delivers, especially for cube. I just might put in the top 3 (up to 6) of this list for unpowered 450.

Not to mention the artifact.dec cards of this set are insane. Green gets a Splicer, and goldvein hydra is both a ramp enabler and payoff, as well as having all that artifact synergy. The colored artifacts are really good too, but the blue ones have lots of competition.

Mega slam dunk in my artifact Cube. Finally a RG card that ramps, makes tokens, and as a bonus, acts as repeatable damage.

Works so well with Treasures and Powerstones, plus green token synergy, and token doubling abilities.

Generally I am not a fan of typal cards, with the exception for Goblins (which is easy to pickup because they are visually identifiable and are all in red.

I dislike this because:
1. A negative interaction is worse than a positive interaction. Not a good gameplay/design where you can randomly kill some creatures and same not.
2. Class based types are hard to keep track. Goblins are visually easy to remember and the some are even in the name. On the other hand, it is not easy to remember which creatures are Rogues, or warlocks.
3. Types tend to be erratad frequently. I don’t want to bother to keep track or check the types every time.
4. Dislike the flavor. Generally I feel this set has a Un/UB vibe. More especially, that card name does not feel like a Magic card.

I understand these points are all personal preference. Objectively this a good Terror Variant and quite cubable. But..

5. I like my terror variants to be able to kill planeswalkers as well.

I think I sill have a few nonrecurring black 1 drops. Will gladly put this in.

Problem is that Gravecrawler will eventually be non recurring

I love that it has reminder text. In cube where we have a hundred or so keywords, this is important.

We have reached a point where standard cards have little effect on cubes now. Seems that we are now waiting for Modern Horizons 3

Nonetheless I find the article useful and insightful. For lesser powered cubes, there are a lot of interesting choices.

Kellan is very good in an artifact cube. Works well with any indestructible artifacts, notably the lands.

Forensic Gadgeteer is great for combo cubes.

Demand Answers is really a good card for Welder/Reanimator decks.

Great article!

Honestly not really an exciting set for small cubes, with incremental power crept upgrades of looters, manlands and doom blade variants. (Not complaining - these upgrades will be cheap.)

Great article! This set is not bad for cube.

For 450 I like Mosswood Dreadnoght due to it’s versatility as an aggro and grindy midrange/ card advantage engine.

Embereth Veteran’s ability is not trivial, as you have pointed out. Will get this one as well.

As I dont have duals and dislike DFCs, manlands are still top options for my cube. Will probably get the manlands but not in much of a hurry and will settle for the Zendikari ones for now.

Quote from jamis »

Triomes or Horizon Lands(Assuming there was a complete set of 10 Horizon lands)

I’d also go for Horizon Lands as they enter untapped and favors aggro. 450 unpowered without duals.

That said, they are both good so it boils down whether you want to limit fixing or not.

Not a fan of the art, but really dogging Tough Cookie for my artifact cube. It’s 2 artifacts/foods, a mana sink and a use for
food, clues or treasure, and a Golem that works with Splicers!

Even though I am postive my cube wont have updates this release, I still read your article, haha! And it looks like you agree! Not much for small cubes. (Mine is 450)


I believe shark is ok for 450 but i’d rather have it in artifact cube.

this is great in limited. stat to cost ratio is great plus trample. The ability is nice too although you have to be more careful with it than something like Akoum Stonewaker

After a bit of testing, this guy is better than I expected. He is a good early game threat alongside other aggro drops and the 2nd toughness is nice for a black two drop. I think he's inferior to Blood Scrivener (at least with our really low curve in black), but seeing as black is not very well endowed with two-drops, I like him enough to stick around. I don't think he'll draw quite a card a game on average, but there will be times you can stick equipment on him and profit, and he can trade with the average creature of his cost.

6/10, makes the cut for now.

Also, Dark Confidant, Blood Scrivener and Pain Seer are now known as the Bobfecta around these parts.