Cryptic Command can hit a land and tap all creatures of an opponent to swing to victory or to slow down aggro. They are both modal spells, but still different enough regarding their modes. Mystic Confluence was a commander product and this new card smells like it was meant for commander too. That doesn't mean it sucks in a traditional cube, Mystic Confluence is a great card! I just think that in a vacuum, Confluence (and Cryptic Command) are just better cards that have a much more favourable worst case scenario.
I will try it out though
Attacking with your midrange creature, bouncing a blocker while also getting a copy of your creature (untapped) and a card - that is quite solid for 6 mana. Also, creating a surprise blocker that can kill an attacker would be even better. I am just not sure how useful the counter mode is, 6 Mana for a counterspell that creates a body can be solid, Draining Whelk is still playable in average powered cubes. But it is also easier to abuse. Not sure, testing will show.
I think this card is quite win-more. It does a poor job at stabilizing from a bad board position. It would be so much better if it was able to copy an opponents creature. In multiplayer it will be a good swing and I adore the synergy with Torrential Gearhulk.
Thassa's Intervention is in the slot at the moment, Pull from Tomorrow was there before. Finale is just in the list because maybe I underestimate it for multiplayer drafts. So this mostly comes down to: Is the flexibility of Intervention (card advantage or emergency counter)and the slightly lower cost (4 mana for 2 cards) worth the loss of reanimator shenanigans as well as a potentially very big hand recovery as well as "draw" synergies (like Chasm Skulker or Psychosis Crawler)?
It reminds me of Sunset Pyramid, but slightly more pushed.
It is a colorless draw engine that gives you something to do in case you miss business in your hand, but it also works on curve as a scry artifact. So you can mix all the options... 2 mana for 4 turns of scry 1 with a lifegain of 4 at the end is a reasonable bottom.
I still have Scroll Rack in my cube. Most of the time it feels like a combo card that enables something that cares for the top of your library. Scroll Rack loves shuffle effects and almost feels like a solid draw then, but it lacks the ability to just generate card advantage. Maybe I will give the Brain Book a try
It has been very strong in my testing, too. It almost hoses certain archetypes to the point where it's oppressive. Anything with instants/sorceries will have a hard time to fight against the life swings that this generates - all while disrupting recursion, too.
My group finally met up to test the new cards and Mutate was a flop. It is too easy to disrupt and the non-human clause just makes this win-more mechanic even worse for most cubes.
Green doesn't have many impressive army in a can cards below 6 mana, so I like Deranged Hermit (and his Modern Masters counterpart) very much. But Thragtusk is that easily splashable monster of a card. I am so conflicted!
I really like that Shark Typhoon has all these modes in early and mid game, while also offering the enchantment effect for grindy multiplayer matches. But Kiora actually does something interactive in disrupting an opponent heavily and doesn't need further support once you have the mana. Academy Rector and Hall of Heliod's Generosity are in the cube, as well as Brago, King Eternal as commander.
Thorn Mammoth has been quite strong in my cube. I'm convinced that Kogla, the Titan Ape will be even better. Nevertheless, I am quite happy to play both of them - green finally gets some ways to interact with your opponents creatures, just like all the other colors but with green flavor.
My sleeper hit for this set is Sea-Dasher Octopus. He will not cut in my cube for now, but playtesting has been very strong. It's so flexibel and both sides of the spell are quite useful due to flash. Your opponent tapped out? Flash it in eot to draw a card. You need a flashy blocker? You have a cheap creature with evasion? It's no Curiosity or Ophidian Eye in the sense that it doesn't do broken things like with shooting damage with Guttersnipe and drawing. But it will generate value in more cases than Curiosity or a Scroll Thief. I am just not convinced that it can beat one of the many blue etb-value critters for cmc3.
Anyway, thank you for your evaluation, it's always a delight to read
I will replace Bygone Bishop with this gem. The magic about this is that it's a 3/3 First Strike for 3 which is quite impressive for an utility creature. I also like that it has a synergy with shuffling effects, allowing for some card quality if it happens. In addition to that the land play effect will happen, sometimes more than once and in grindy games this will make a difference. I am very optimistic!
I will test this glorious ape in the slot of Greenwarden of Murasa. It's a much more interesting package of effects and I like that it does so much at once. I hope to live the dream of bouncing Eternal Witness for ape***** value!
I could imagine this is better than Galepowder Mage in my cube.
But on the other hand, many creatures have flying and don't work with the moth. Will test though.
Electrodominance has been very unimpressive for my cube, even though I have a high amount of ETB creatures. The times where you have got something in your hand that is good with it are very low most of the time, since it adds 2 mana to that cards' cmc.
Mystic Confluence was a commander product and this new card smells like it was meant for commander too. That doesn't mean it sucks in a traditional cube, Mystic Confluence is a great card! I just think that in a vacuum, Confluence (and Cryptic Command) are just better cards that have a much more favourable worst case scenario.
I will try it out though
Attacking with your midrange creature, bouncing a blocker while also getting a copy of your creature (untapped) and a card - that is quite solid for 6 mana. Also, creating a surprise blocker that can kill an attacker would be even better. I am just not sure how useful the counter mode is, 6 Mana for a counterspell that creates a body can be solid, Draining Whelk is still playable in average powered cubes. But it is also easier to abuse. Not sure, testing will show.
Thassa's Intervention is in the slot at the moment, Pull from Tomorrow was there before. Finale is just in the list because maybe I underestimate it for multiplayer drafts. So this mostly comes down to: Is the flexibility of Intervention (card advantage or emergency counter)and the slightly lower cost (4 mana for 2 cards) worth the loss of reanimator shenanigans as well as a potentially very big hand recovery as well as "draw" synergies (like Chasm Skulker or Psychosis Crawler)?
It is a colorless draw engine that gives you something to do in case you miss business in your hand, but it also works on curve as a scry artifact. So you can mix all the options... 2 mana for 4 turns of scry 1 with a lifegain of 4 at the end is a reasonable bottom.
I still have Scroll Rack in my cube. Most of the time it feels like a combo card that enables something that cares for the top of your library. Scroll Rack loves shuffle effects and almost feels like a solid draw then, but it lacks the ability to just generate card advantage. Maybe I will give the Brain Book a try
Green doesn't have many impressive army in a can cards below 6 mana, so I like Deranged Hermit (and his Modern Masters counterpart) very much. But Thragtusk is that easily splashable monster of a card. I am so conflicted!
for an EDH cube (1vs1 and 4 player multiplayer)
I really like that Shark Typhoon has all these modes in early and mid game, while also offering the enchantment effect for grindy multiplayer matches. But Kiora actually does something interactive in disrupting an opponent heavily and doesn't need further support once you have the mana.
Academy Rector and Hall of Heliod's Generosity are in the cube, as well as Brago, King Eternal as commander.
But to be honest, I would rather see the community abandon the idea of a ban list for good.
My sleeper hit for this set is Sea-Dasher Octopus. He will not cut in my cube for now, but playtesting has been very strong. It's so flexibel and both sides of the spell are quite useful due to flash. Your opponent tapped out? Flash it in eot to draw a card. You need a flashy blocker? You have a cheap creature with evasion? It's no Curiosity or Ophidian Eye in the sense that it doesn't do broken things like with shooting damage with Guttersnipe and drawing. But it will generate value in more cases than Curiosity or a Scroll Thief. I am just not convinced that it can beat one of the many blue etb-value critters for cmc3.
Anyway, thank you for your evaluation, it's always a delight to read
But on the other hand, many creatures have flying and don't work with the moth. Will test though.
As a sidenote: In a vacuum - Wildest Dreams or Eldritch Evolution for a cmc 3 slot?