MTG Salvation

GFTT, Hagra Mauling

Generally, I like History of Benalia more. Outside of heavy white decks Spectral Procession often costs 2WW which isn't a great rate for three flying 1/1's. History is easier to cast on curve, threatens more damage (albeit non-evasive), and has a little bit more to offer in terms of cube synergies since most cubes have Student of Warfare, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar or Hero of Bladehold at least and I don't usually see a lot of spirit payoffs in cube.

I love mill in standard/historic. Not a fan for cube. Mill decks do one thing well - mill and that's it. They rarely have synergy with existing cube strategies in the way standard or certain limited formats do (E.g Rogues in standard/ZNR limited right now) and frankly, in a 40 card format I think a truly well crafted cube mill package would probably be too strong. How hard is it to get through 33 cards with the best mill cards in the game? In sum, I find mill in cube to be parasitic, linear, non-synergystic, and if pushed as cube archetypes are probably too effective and non-interactive.

Upon further evaluation of this card. I think the value of the land mode, even an etbt land, slightly outweighs the 1 mana "tax". The number of times the land will be crucial towards making sure you hit your land drops as needed outweighs the number of times you won't be able to double spell off of regrowth due to the "tax".

I don't find this to be true for all MDFC/Spells. A one mana tax on an effect like force spike is more detrimental than it is on Regrowth which is better later in the game anyhow -- generally.

I think currently the list of MDFC's I want for my cube are as follows:
All of the mythic cycle except Sea Gate Restoration.
Kazandu Mammoth
Bala Ged Recovery

I can see the case for cutting SGC at 360 but it still holds up at 450 on up.

It's just a huge value package. Growth Spiral is already a very good card. Adding life-gain which is critically important in many matchups for just 1 more and the relatively easy ability to recast it and get the effect again with a 6/6 to boot is incredibly strong.

Simic has legitimately gone from one of the the worst to one of the top guilds in the course of a year after Krasis, Oko, and now this.

Once this gets the banhammer as I suspect it will, I will be scooping this up for my cube.

Again, I didn't feel like I needed to make the disclaimer that I realized standard and limited are not cube, but I guess I did. My point is that other formats can and do inform cube testing decisions and provide a limited degree of predictive value of the likelihood of success in other formats. Of course there are standard all-stars or limited bombs that don't translate to cube and I'm not saying that success in other formats determines a card's success in cube. At a time, when I can't get the group together to cube, I'll take early cues where I can get them -- particularly on MDFC's which are still an unknown.

My point was that Mirror Image is a much better reference point for this card than Phyrexian Metamorph for this card since it is a much closer analog.

You're making a Straw Man argument from my comments about watching streams from standard and ZNR limited gameplay. At no point did I suggest that my evaluation of these cards for cube stops with determinations I make solely from watching standard and limited gameplay. I didn't feel the need to make the obvious disclaimer that cube is its own format and that results in one format don't directly translate to another, but I guess I'll have to do that. Besides which, limited and/or standard has always informed cube to some extent. Pack Rat and more recently Uro are fine examples of this. Pack Rat's domination of its respective limited format is what turned many cube designer's on to the card. Similarly, Uro was not thought of as a top 3 Simic card early on - it definitely is now after dominating a standard season and looking like its going to keep on defining standard post-rotation. And before you say it.....I also appreciate that cube designers have also tested these cards directly in cube and its performance there is ultimately why people are continuing to run these cards in cube. I still contend that standard and limited gameplay helps cube designers to obtain an early appreciation for how these cards perform that--in conjunction with other factors--informs decisions to test and by extension include certain cards. This is especially true in the midst of a pandemic that makes getting together for testing by way of drafting unworkable.

Critically, Phyrexian Metamorph can copy any creature/ artifact on the board - not just yours. Glasspool Mimic is an MDFC Mirror Image.

I'm not firmly in either camp, I think a handful of the MDFC's will earn their place, many will not. I'm going to watch some more streams to get a better appreciation of how these play. It will be particularly telling if we start seeing these go mid-pack during the ZNR draft streams. Cube cards don't generally go mid-pack in their respective draft formats.

I'm watching the ZNR preview streams like a hawk to see how effective the MDFC's are. I've only watched 3 decks so far W/B Clerics, U/B Rogues, and Mono-Blue Mill. Initial impressions are that it is telling that the streamers who tend to excel at deck construction (CGB in particular) are running playsets of these. I didn't see any of these cast as a spell except for one game where the mono-blue deck was able to cast Sea Gate Restoration right before dying but to be fair mono-blue mill is not a great deck period. Hoping to see some builds running the G/R MDFC's.

Verdict is still out, need to watch some more. Also, yes I know that Day 1 standard with ZNR doesn't necessarily predict performance in cube, but it is better than nothing.

Drana > Spawn > Yahenni = Strike Leader > Grim Haruspex > Ammit Eternal

The biggest strike against Bala Ged Recovery for me is that extra mana in the cost is going to be the difference between being able to cast what you want to return on the same turn or not. Say you're at 6 mana with a regrowth and a Ravenous Chupacabra in your graveyard and you need their creature dead now. Only Regrowth is going to do that. It won't happen often, but enough to offset the advantage of the tapped land I think so ultimately they are about even and I don't need another copy of this effect.

I'm going to chalk the on par with Elesh-Norn suggestion to spoiler season tinted glasses. I keep going back and forth with the MDFC's and I think my answer continues to be that if the base card isn't above average to begin with, making it an MDFC doesn't do enough to make it a cube staple.

I think of being an MDFC as a rating modifier if I were scoring these cards out of 10. The mythic cycle adds about 1.5 points to a cards rating by virtue of being able to just be played normally as untapped lands (albeit for 3 life). The rare and uncommon cycles each get a point for also being able to be tapped lands.

So going through the potentially cubeable MDFC's it looks kind of like this in my mind. The cutoff for viability within my cube would be roughly 7/10.

Emeria's Call - Base card 5. Final card 6.5 WATCHING
Sea Gate Restoration - Base card 4. Final card 5.5
Agadeem's Awakening - Base card 5.5. Final card 7 TESTING
Shatterskull Smashing - Base card 5.5. Final card 7 TESTING
Turntimber Symbiosis - Base card 6. Final card 7.5 TESTING
Kazandu Mammoth - Base card 6.5. Final card 7.5 TESTING
Glasspool Mimic - Base card 5. Final card 6
Hagra Mauling - Base card 4.5. Final card 5.5
Ondu Inversion- Base card 2. Final card 3.
Valakut Awakening - Base card 4. Final card 5.
Bala Ged Recovery Base card 5.5. Final card 6.5 WATCHING
Jwari Disruption Base card 4.5. Final card 5.5
Tangled Florahedron Base card 4. Final card 5

I like Coldsteel the most of the three to be honest. Ramp is more important early than late and this provides ramp and fixing for you on turn 3.

Couple ZNR This or That's

1. Hallowed Spiritkeeper or Skyclave Apparition
2. Jace Beleren or Jace, Mirror Mage