MTG Salvation

Quote from steve_man »

Thorn of Amethyst / Thalia can at least be built around the drawback. Thalia / Lodestone Golem being threats themselves are huge. Smokestack / Tangle Wire impact your opponent more. Armageddon can be built up to and just win the game when it resolves. Sphere of Resistance having NONE of these benefits while being completely symmetrical doesn't make it an attractive option for me.

I'm not claiming that Sphere of Resistance is a 360 Powered Staple, but I do think your analysis is missing the point I was making.
The symmetry of a symmetric effect is broken in deckbuilding. This is easier for Thorn/Thalia/Lodestone, but applies equally for Sphere.
With curves getting lower and decks getting leaner, the number of spells cast/resolved goes up, making the tax of Sphere more impactful. If you manage to build a Deck with higher quality per card than your opponent, the tax will be less meaningful for you. On top of that, using activated abilities can break the symmetry further, see the new cycle of manlands.
In the same way as a state can be built for Armageddon, one can be built for Sphere. For a lot less mana even and quite a bit earlier. Armageddon was King when games were more reactive, but building up a sufficient advantage and having 4 mana spare for Armageddon has gotten harder and harder. Sphere delays less than Armageddon, but costs way less and manages to get you over the finish line just the same.

I want to revitalise discussion around Sphere of Resistance after having had massive success in two drafts with it. The sequencing problems this card creates, especially with curves getting generally lower and double-spelling getting more and more important, has been backbreaking for the opponents deck. I feel this card got a lot better over the years, essentially being the very cheap alternative to cards like Armageddon and an extension of the package provided by Winter Orb, Tangle Wire, Lodestone Golem, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and maybe Elite Spellbinder and Anointed Peacekeeper. Blowing up all lands is unnecessary, when all you need is to make your opponents hand functionally useless.
After having had less and less success with Smokestack and Braids, Cabal Minion, I was on the lookout for something that would give a denial-deck more power, and Sphere definitely lived up to that! I'll be adding Thorn of Amethyst as well to see whether that effect is good enough without the 2/1 First Strike attached.
I've yet to copy Sphere with Mycosynth Gardens, but am definitely looking forward to the day it happens!

I'd play Omnath over Niv-Mizzet, having tried out both. Niv is too much investment both on deckbuilding and drafting, since it incentivizes picking a lot of guild cards.
Omnath is simply a good card that has synergy with cards of high value for any deck (fetchlands) and so will be able to fit and maybe even motivate several decks.


T&G vs Siege Rhino: I never played with Siege Rhino, but in this day and age I would not want to use a wedge-slot for this. Not due to powerlevel, which might differ for cubes, but since it is not a card that motivates me exploring the wedge for a deck. T&G does a lot of things relevant for Abzan colours and thus suits the wedge.

The cube ofa friend of mine is extending this archetype with both Academy and Arena Rector. The decks this produces are more controlish, but are very strong!

It's interesting to see how people value the swords after Fire&Ice differently. I never considered running Feast&Famine at all, and the only other sword next to Fire&Ice that I'm running is Sinew&Steel, because I like that it solves the problem of deciding whether to attack a planeswalker or a player.

Quote from TheCaper85 »

Maul of the skyclaves vs Halvar, God of Battle

Maul has played way better for me than Halvar. Halvar never really did enough to warrant a 4CMC slot - I played it a few times, nothing really changed when he hit the board and I died or would have won anyway. Maul changed a few tricky situations of a gummed up board to actually get the job done.

I would say this is a very fair assessment. The most important thing about red finishers to me is haste and evasion, which both have. After looking at Hellkite again, I actually really like that swap and maybe I'll give it a try as well

Doom Whisperer is an amazing card and has been a must answer permanent in my environment since you can't chump it. Death Tyrant however can also not favourably be chumped and reads like a very interesting card. I think Doom Whisperer is a faster clock in most boardstates, so I'd say it has an edge there.

After thinking about it for a while, I think I will cut Fact or Fiction for this. Hiding information and essentially making a 2 card pile for yourself seems better to me than digging one deeper. I think however it all depends on this crucial question on whether 4 is much worse than 5.

Maybe it's weird, but I like Altar of Dementia also as a regular card in control mirrors. Reshuffle effects are sparse in my Cube, essentially only Echo of Eons, Time Spiral and the Eldrazi Titans. Decking someone has been a real wincondition and with 40 cards it is easy to put your control opponent on a 5 turn clock or so.

If Braids has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Braids has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Braids has only one fan then that is me. If Braids has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Braids, then I am against the world.

Braids is one of my absolutely favorite cube cards and is still a terror whenever she hits the table. My heart is breaking that sentiment is turning against her.

Braids + Stacks also gets bonus points for leading to incredibly memorable games (which, for me, is the whole point of cube). More than once we've had games effectively restart on turn 7 or 8 when basically nobody has permanents in play anymore.

Another Ixa-llent set (p)review! It's crazy how cubeworthy the entire top 20 is this time around!

being able to get rid of the only day bound card in my list while removing a DFC is win win.

Don't like that it is called malcolm but everything else is good.

Quote from meltingsho »

without any mana value restrictions

"with mana value less than Narset's power"

The creature creep is gross! But I still seem to be the only bothered.

I'm gonna state the obvious here, since I've been annoyed about must-answer bomb creatures since Baneslayer. Just because cards exist and are good doesn't mean you need to play them.

I personally find the design behind cards like Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer to be distasteful and ill-balanced. Who needs 'em?

There's no need to play cards you don't like, especially if you don't like what they do to an environment. It's not like it's hard to find cool cards to try.

I will also say that I agree with shermanido37 that we have gotten a huge number of worthwhile answer cards in the last few years. People have given several examples, and there are plenty more that haven't been mentioned like Loran of the Third Path, Witness Protection, Weakstone's Subjugation, Unholy Heat, March of Otherworldly Light, Swift Reconfiguration, and plenty more. Even colorless options have gotten deeper with things like Karn's Sylex, Ugin, the Ineffable, and dorky commons like Ninja's Kunai (which may not rock the universe, but compares quite favorably to previous options).

They have tried a lot of things with answers lately, and some of it has really been nice. Hand disruption could still use more options (Dreams of Steel and Oil is lovely, but it's no Thoughtsieze), and counter magic hasn't moved very far. Black also continues to bafflingly lack good mass-removal options that don't break the bank. And green could still use help despite some killer Naturalize variants.

Despite all this, the power of runaway bombs is undeniable. But hey, if those cards lead to unfun play patterns, just cut 'em. There have to be cards you'd love to try if only you had room.

Quote from steve_man »

- Personally I don't like Goblin Welder type cards in cubes with a good amount of removal or things to it haste / shroud / hexproof / etc. Welder is an ABC effect (Welder / artifact in play / artifact in graveyard) that relies on a fragile 1/1 surviving a whole turn cycle never felt great to me.

- A lot of the artifact deck for me just has to do with critical mass (Tinker / Tolarian Academy / Urza's Saga / Urza, Lord High Artificer / anything that makes Karnstructs / etc). Red in general for me doesn't play too heavy a role in artifacts matters. P&K Nalaar generates thopters for Retrofitter Foundry, then there's gold cards like Dack / Daretti / Third Path Iconoclast / Chaos Defiler / etc.

I've found this is the mistake people make when evaluating cards like Welder in cube. Welder is a 1-drop.
- If my opponent spent a removal spell on a 1 drop, I'm always very happy because that's a removal spell not pointed at one of my expensive artifacts
- The artifact deck traditionally curves as No 1-drop, Talisman -> 4 drop etc. This is often way too slow for vintage cube standards. My experience is you need to do something turn 1.

I also found red to be an incredibly important color for the artifact.dec, in particular its Red-X sweepers/ WildFire. Sweepers are most important in these type of decks as the artifact deck should be more of a control deck with artifact synergies.

Quote from opterown »

Does anyone have preliminary thoughts about card performance from this set so far?

Sure, I'll share.
Note: my 600 powered cube with duplicates has heavy artifact utility support with 2x welder, trash for treasure, Sai master thopterist, goblin engineer, kappa cannoneer etc. Dinky artifacts (trinkets) are better in my cube than most. I've been trying to support artifact decks that are more interesting than signet ramp + combo.
So far, the experiment has been a success.

Haywire Mite ++
This card has been the quiet MVP of the set. Tutorable, artifact synergies, life gain, creature synergies, efficient non-creature removal.
It synergizes with many strategies and is good in so many matchups. My cube leverages this card more than most, so I can't guarantee it for every cube, but this little buddy has earned a spot in my cube for a long time. Every normal powered cube should be testing this card imo.

Phyrexain Dragon Engine +

it’s synergy with welder effects, specifically goblin engineer has proven to be quite powerful in my cube. I've entombed this with goblin engineer a few times and every time its felt very powerful. It turns goblin engineer into a must kill threat that leaves behind graveyard value. That combo alone makes dragon engine worth supporting IF and only IF you run goblin engineer. I wouldn't run it in typical cubes.

Legion to Ashses +
This has been a premium catch all, expensive removal spell. Exile is very relevant. I realize I've included so much cheap/conditional removal that there's been a demand for something that can hit more powerful/expensive targets. I've witnessed it be a key answer to 13 mana emrakul and 10 mana ulamog. Unsure how long it'll last, but it passed it's first test.

Misery's Shadow +
I had high hopes for this card and it's been everything I've wanted it to be. It put an insanely fast clock on me in a UB control deck. I saw it splashed in a red agro deck , help exile a kitchen finks and beat down to trade with a primeval titan!
A competitive, splashable , agressive 2 drop that is better than filler quality.

Bitter Reunion ++
The more I play with this card the more I love it. The haste is so much more useful than I thought it would be. I had high hopes for reanimator and welder decks, but it's also been a solid playable in cheaty decks that don't use the graveyard. I had a channel/sneak attack deck where haste and card selection was at a premium.
Today I played it in a good stuff deck with a couple titans and it was a fine playable there too. I had inferno titan under shell dock isle and was able to hasty kill my opponent out of no where in a spot where I was fairly behind.
Getting more confident it should be a cube staple in cubes that support multiple cheaty creature strategies.

Arcane Proxy --
I'm sure great arcane proxy decks exist, but I've been dissapointed how rarely they've come together since we started testing it. Many times I've seen it with nothing great to flasback in a graveyard, or in decks with not enough targets (ultimately hitting the sideboard). Flashing back a cantrip is not a particularly powerful thing to be doing, so it really lives and dies with blue power and decks that have a variety of powerful cheap instant/sorceries. I'm likely "running bad" with it, but I do believe I over-estimated how often good arcane proxy decks get built.

Phyrexian Fleshgorger =
I've seen a lot of decks play it, it's looked good in deck building with the amount of synergies it has, but I haven't seen it perform that well yet.
Often the decks that end up with it aren't pressuring the opponent life total that well, so the ward hasn't been as good of a protection as I expected.
I think it'll ultimately end up as a synergy card, that thankfully interacts with a lot of decks. Still testing, but don't think it'll end up as anything special.

Teething wurmlet =
I was pretty high on this card for my cube, and I've played it in a few decks I thought it would be good in... but I was underwhelmed.
I think if your cube has many cheap artifacts and a considerable agressive slant to green it'll be really good. It beats down well and can gain a lot of life, but it doesn't do much toward a ramp/value oriented gameplan, which is what my green+artifact decks tend to be. I'm still testing, but I think theres a good chance itll get the axe within a year.

Quote from LucidVision »

What about steel seraph has performed well? Common play pattern?

The flying often functions as pseudo haste, elspeth style, and then let’s it add more than 3 damage on further turns. Also can be key to sniping or at least effectively contesting loyalty on PWs that hit the board early seemingly well defended (opp deployed it with sufficient ground blockers vs no flying visible). But if you’re vs aggro (or the right board vs nonaggro decks tbf) the lifelink can also be really critical. Pretty much what it says on the tin, just great effects at a great rate.


Vigilance option, 6 mana option, artifact synergies, and getting a better body from blink/cheat/reanimate are better than if they weren’t there of course, but relatively fringe so far, not really part of the core gameplay but relevant icing when taken together.


edit: To be clear, W 3s are *really* stacked (and I personally feel like cubes are often slightly bloated on 3 already). So I don’t necessarily expect it to keep a place in all environments. But it is among the A tier of W 3s for me so I do recommend getting some direct reps and seeing how you like it vs the other A W 3s.