MTG Salvation

In the instances where we run no sideboard events, the unused cards go back into the cube box, mainly for security reasons. It prevents the players from having to keep track of multiple piles of cards and prevents cards from getting lost, misplaced or ignored. So our events like that don't physically have sideboards for players to interact with. So banning "outside the game" cards is something I've been considering for a while. But, as I said, I haven't had a need to pull the trigger on that change until now. It fixes a few small things, but the main one was the companion mechanic.

Well, in the shells that want it, it's great, yes. If you're not using it as a combo card, it's pretty fair. But when it enables a combo or has some really nasty synergy, it wins the game, so ...ya, it feels like it justifies its mana cost in those situations.

To be more specific, it's one of the only 4 cards that can enable an infinite turns loop with Kefnet:

God-Eternal Kefnet + Aminatou, the Fateshifter (or Sylvan Library, Scroll Rack or Jace, the Mind Sculptor) + Time Walk (or Time Warp, Capture of Jingzhou or Temporal Manipulation)

It's also part of an infinite loop with Felidar Guardian:

Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Felidar Guardian loops infinitely, which kills with Altar of the Brood (or Impact Tremors, Purphoros, God of the Forge or Corpse Knight)

Aminatou also has INSANE synergy with Wishclaw Talisman, to the point where I'd almost consider it a combo...

It's not bad in Esper blink/bounce shells too, where it can be played at face value with reasonable success, but it's definitely a combo card first and a value engine second. It would probably not be good enough if the combos weren't supported. Hell, I even used it once to put a Tinker target back into my deck, which felt really good, lol.

OP updated. Added Steward of Solidarity in for testing. It's an infinite combo card with Intruder Alarm, can be used as a Warrior generator for Najeela, the Blade-Blossom decks and it might be a fringe playable in both token/anthem shells and Mardu Aristocrats shells as well. Skeptical about its use in random white creature decks, but it might serve as a desperation playable for white aggro decks when playing Sealed Deck and the like too; extended testing is required to find out if that's the case...

Also adding Viashino Pyromancer. A playable random aggro beater, but also a card that can be an added win condition to infinite Wave/'Lark loops. I was going to do this before, but when the humans-matters clause was important to my list, it was harder to find a comparable cut.

Urza > Sower > Mulldrifter > Typhoon would be my gut ranking, but most of these are going to have value that's going to vary a lot from group to group based on personal preferences. Like Typhoon might have the highest floor, and Urza might have the highest ceiling. Sower has the most immediate impact, and Mulldrifter might have the most long-term impact (especially with synergy/support). So it's really going to vary a lot with these particular cards, I think.

I also like Hermit more than Thragtusk, but I'm a fan of both cards. I like them both more than a lot of other green 5s though.

It's not. A lot of the test drafting was done on CubeCobra, which only supports regular drafts. All of the companions were easily built around if drafted early. Some are harder than others, but they're all very doable, and they're all very good.

They're all disgusting. Playing Magic with 8 cards >>>>>>>>> whatever you have to give up to satisfy their deckbuilding restrictions. All 10 were in my cube, and now I'm playing none of them. They pushed me into making a decision I've been on the fence about for a while, which is banning cards that reference the "outside the game" zone. One quick design restriction later, and I have a nice safe haven where I can avoid running into companions. As a mechanic, it has single-handedly made me lose interest in non-Cube Magic (outside of formats like 93/94 and middle school of course, where we can still play regular 7-card Magic).

Force of Negation >>> Negate. I also like Spell Pierce more than Negate too, if that's on the table.

I wonder if there's a correlation between players that under-surveil with Doom Whisperer and those that under-draw with Sylvan Library. I see so many players play Library like a 2cc Mirri's Guile, and it makes me cringe watching players lose games because they refuse to pay life to dig out of bad draws. I'd rather pay 8 life twice and lose to a kicked Burst Lightning than lose because I refused to draw out of a bad situation before it was too late.

Main reason? Companions are awful. That's what drove me to pull the trigger on this design restriction. But it also solves problems where we're running fast/basic/secure events and might not play with sideboards. That occasionally happens, and I don't want to strand cards in the cube that don't function well in those scenarios. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but the Companions being as legitimately miserable as they are forced my hand.

Nope.

Cards that reference "outside of the game" as a zone are banned from my cube. Companions, Wishes and other such cards will not be coming back.

Song looks like a cool card.

It's a solid midrange beater, especially w/ toughness-matters cards like Languish and the Wildfires. Good activated ability too, which is often underused in comparison to how often it would be correct to do so.

I don't think anyone is suggesting cutting Rec Sage for Gemrazer, so I wouldn't worry about encountering that scenario.

It's hard to pull off Lukka type effects in the cube, but if you're supporting a Polymorph subtheme, it'll fit right in. There's likely enough support for it now to make it consistent, if you're willing to make the necessary swaps to make it work. You need s lot of cheap non-creature cards that make creatures to get these kinds of effects to be consistent in limited, but the payoff is there if you can dedicate the infrastructure to it.

Companions are dumb. Each cube group should decide how they want to solve that problem on their own. But my cube is going to be a haven from that silliness. It's not Magic.

Since you're adding in creature-based combo, I'd keep the Greaves from those three since it can protect your combo pieces...