This is my 50th installment of the "top 20" set (P)review articles! Just like the previous reviews, it will be in a spoiled top X countdown format, with each section having an image, a brief summary/description, and my verdict on what cubes I think it could potentially see some play in. I got a lot of positive feedback on the format from the last few articles, so I’m going to keep the “what I like” and “what I don’t like” sections.
Keep in mind (just like the others) that this is a set preview. Similar to draft predictions in professional sports, this list is an educated guess at best. Some cards I value highly in here may turn out to not last long in the cube. Other cards that are lower down on the list (or even missed entirely!) could (well, very likely may) turn out to be great cards. Even the great Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round! Again, this is not intended to be gospel, set in stone, or written as a review for posterity. This is simply written to be an enjoyable guess at cards I like for cubes, and hopefully it'll allow some cube managers to evaluate cards they may have otherwise overlooked and/or put some cards in perspective that may've been overhyped. Nothing more.
Outlaws of Thunder Junction is a fantastic set for the cube. There are a lot of cards that provide good stats and value for the cost in addition to set mechanics that provide flexibility and versatility in card slots …two recipes for good cube cards. Unlike most other sets, there are multiple standard-legal set codes released in this set; both OTJ cards and BIG cards can be found in the same product and they’re both standard-legal, so this set review will include both base OTJ cards and cards from The Big Score. There are so many good cards in this set that there will undoubtedly be cards that miss my top 20 list that are 100% worth exploring for certain cubes, so don’t fret if some of your favorites didn’t make the list.
Without further ado, here’s the countdown!
Pest Control
A cycling Orzhov sweeper.
What I Like: This card has the ability to attack a lot of cards in the cube for very cheap. It kills all 1cc creatures and cheap utility cards, tokens, moxen and other fast mana. In decks looking to curb an explosive early start from the opponent, it can deal with a lot of their cards for cheap. And when the card isn’t presented with worthwhile targets, it has cycling so it’s never dead. It can be quite punishing against aggressive decks and token strategies, and can randomly turn really unfair openings from the opponent in powered cubes into a very mundane board after this resolves.
What I Don't Like: In a lot of decks, it will be very hard to make this effect asymmetrical. Killing off your own tokens, fast mana and cheap permanents really limits the number of decks that can play this effectively, and there are certain decks where this will just be a complete dud, relegating it to being cycling fodder a lot of the time.
Verdict: In bigger powered cubes looking for more answers to explosive early starts from the opponent, this can be a nice tool in the toolbox to deal with go-wide aggro, token decks, and decks with an unfair concentration of fast mana.
Fomori Vault
A colorless Desolate Loothouse.
What I Like: In decks with a high enough concentration of artifacts, it won’t be hard to reliably turn this card into a rummaging land. And in artifact.dec shells with a ton of artifact density, it may be able to turn every card in your hand into an Impulse effect of sorts, doubling as both a discard outlet for Welder/Daretti effects and functioning as repeatable card advantage.
What I Don't Like: First, the card is limited to decks that have the artifact density to make it reliable. Second, it taps for colorless mana, making it compete against a suite of powerful colorless lands, which need to be limited during deck construction. Lastly, having to discard first is a bummer. I wish this was more of a looting effect that allowed me to select a card before discarding, given the hoops I’m jumping through to make it live.
Verdict: Large cubes that support the artifact.dec in its many iterations may find good use for this utility land, but I expect it to be too slow and narrow to have a big impact in smaller cubes with a more traditional density of artifacts.
Geralf, the Fleshwright
A multi-spell value engine.
What I Like: Triggering off of every spell type is huge. Decks loaded to the gills with cheap spells, cantrips, baubles, and spheres can take this effect and make it massively powerful. Your second spell in a turn makes a 2/2 body (which enters untapped). The 3rd spell makes a 3/3, and the 4th makes a 4/4, etc. Insanely powerful in cubes that deploy a turbo-xerox theory to their design, as multi-spell turns are then norm, and there’s a boatload of value to unpack. It’s also a great backup win condition in storm shells, and it can either create blockers to gum up the board while you’re waiting for a combo kill, or be the win condition itself if you can make a bunch of bodies that can represent a lethal attack on subsequent turns.
What I Don't Like: First, this card is likely to have the most unfortunate of nicknames bestowed upon it almost immediately. Secondly, in cubes that aren’t engineered to churn through their library with multiple cheap spells a turn, it can be hard to make this card as explosive as it needs to be to routinely justify a cube slot. Lastly, it only triggers on your turn, limiting this to decks that are always playing multiple proactive spells, and not decks that are holding up counterspells, removal, and instant-speed cantrips to unload on the opponent’s turn. It it could play both sides of the board equally, this card would be even more monstrous.
Verdict: In turbo-xerox, cantrip-heavy cubes, this card will likely be a monster. In typical cubes, it can be a powerful card, but a bit more hit-or-miss for my liking.
Ornery Tumblewagg
A +1/+1 counter-themed …Brushwagg mount?!
What I Like: This card can be a very explosive counter engine. It can distribute the counters anywhere, and doubles one stack of them on its attack trigger if mounted. If you go all-in on the Brushwagg itself, and keep adding/doubling its counters, it can attack for a lot of damage in a relatively short span of time. It’s nice that the mount trigger can be activated by summoning-sick creatures, so you’re not forced to utilize valuable threats to get the mount bonus.
What I Don't Like: Between the mount mechanic and doubling counters on one target creature, this play pattern incentivizes putting all your eggs in one basket. It would likely be too much to ask to double all +1/+1 counters everywhere when this makes a mounted attack (allowing a more diversified distribution of counters) but it would make it a lot less vulnerable to an instant-speed removal spell undoing multiple turns of work and potentially negating multiple attackers in combat.
Verdict: With a +1/+1 counter theme floating around, this card is a slam dunk. Without it, there are a lot of competitive green 3-drops that are good at applying pressure that aren’t as vulnerable to bounce and instant-speed removal as this critter is. Not to say it’s not worth experimenting with in lots of cube lists, because it is, but in cubes playing Hardened Scales levels of support for this creature, it can be an insanely powerful engine in addition to its face-value effect.
Phantom Interference
A new Miscalculation variant.
What I Like: Countering unless they pay 2 is a good 2-mana counter variant, and all the ones that have various upsides have all been worthy of cube consideration up to this point, and this one is no different. This is essentially a Lose Focus that exchanges the replicate option for “kicker 3: make a 2/2 flying creature”. This plays well in the early game as a playable 2-mana counterspell, and it also makes for a solid 5-drop that can counter a spell and make a body when the window presents itself.
What I Don't Like: I wish the creature mode cost 2 instead of 3, so it could function as a 3-mana body to ambush an attacker in addition to being a good early counterspell. This would’ve made the combined package 4-mana for a 2/2 flying creature with a Quench trigger, which would’ve felt a lot better than 5, in addition to making the creature mode more palatable as a stand-alone effect.
Verdict: I think this is a bit worse than Lose Focus and Miscalculation, which continue to be the gold standards for these kinds of effects. But if you’re looking for a third, this is a very playable option. I would play this at 720 myself, but I struggled to find a cut I liked for this during this update, especially given the printing of Smirking Spelljacker (a powerful splashhable 5-mana counter + creature option) in the OTJ commander set that just makes this 5-mana mode look embarrassing by comparison.
Aven Interrupter
A new white 3cc tempo creature.
What I Like: This is the tempo-generating effect I like from Soul Partition without the card disadvantage that made it struggle in my group. Getting a Reprieve-style effect stapled to a 2/2 flying body is a good deal for 3 mana. The opponent still paid the full mana for the card that was exiled (plus an extra 2 in a lot of cases) and I didn’t have to go down a card to get access to the effect.
What I Don't Like: I would’ve much preferred a 2W casting cost on this card. Also, being limited to reactive decks is a bit of a deckbuilding issue in white beatdown strategies. This isn’t the kind of card you want as one of your only spells that are intended to be played on the opponent’s turn, since it won’t necessarily fit into the deck’s overall strategy. So this needs to go into a deck with a lot of reactive options.
Verdict: The white 3cc creature slot is really competitive, so I don’t know if this card will stick around forever. But it has a powerful ceiling in the right decks, so if you support reactive tempo-based decks in your cube, it’s worth testing out in the 540-630 range, IMO.
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
A Vinelasher Kudzu …dialed up to 11!
What I Like: This is a green 2-drop that has a comparable effect to something like Luminarch Aspirant. The Aspirant has the increased consistency because of the guaranteed triggers, but Bill trades that consistency for a 2/2 base body, the ability to trigger multiple times off of fetchlands and extra land drops, and has an activated ability that doubles all of your +1/+1 counters on every creature once you have access to 5 mana. Likely a wash or slightly worse than Aspirant in a lot of situations, but in decks engineered to maximize the activated ability or repeatedly chain multi-land drop turns, Bill gets the nod between the two.
What I Don't Like: Bill will undoubtedly face consistency issues, since it relies on land drops to generate impact. This will make it a much worse topdeck than Aspirant in decks that aren’t loaded with other +1/+1 counter effects.
Verdict: I think this card is comparable to Aspirant in cubes that support attacking green decks. It gains a lot more value in lands matters shells and +1/+1 counters matters shells if you support them. I’m finding room in my 630 to test it, but I could certainly see this making the cut in smaller cubes if one or both of those themes are commonly drafted in your group.
Requisition Raid
A mono-white Hull Breach variant.
What I Like: Pure Disenchant effects are harder and harder to justify as we get more versatile cards that provide those effects, but Requisition Raid is worth a close look for a few reasons. First, it’s not a Disenchant effect, it’s a Hull Breach effect, so it can generate card advantage if the opponent presents both an artifact target and an enchantment target. Secondly, the +1/+1 counter effect is a really valuable upside. In go-wide aggro decks and token decks, it’s not uncommon to add 2 or 3 additional power to the board for 1 more mana, which can break combat stalemates and provide extra pressure in addition to answering the opponent’s target. It also prevents the card from being completely dead when the opponent doesn’t present targets for the Hull Breach effect.
What I Don't Like: 2 mana sorcery-speed answers aren’t the norm for dealing with explosive early targets anymore, so it needs to be in decks that can extract consistent impact from the +1/+1 counters to be worthwhile.
Verdict: Very likely limited to powered cubes since the 2-mana answer to moxen is still baseline playable, it needs to go into a cube that has a high enough concentration of targets, and into decks that can utilize both the Hull Breach effect and the +1/+1 counter effects in equal distributions. I’m testing this out in my 630 and it’s playing surprisingly well. Enough so that it might be worthy of inclusion at 540 if the effect looks appealing to you.
Goldvein Hydra
A spicy Xcc green threat.
What I Like: In green decks that need mana sinks or can represent scary big-mana plays, the Hydra can serve double duty. The keyword soup makes this a formidable threat in the mid-game, and puts the opponent in a bad spot. They can’t afford to let it live because it’s running amok on the board and dominating combat, and they can’t afford to kill it because 3-5 additional treasures on your side of the board might allow you to drop a Craterhoof, Ugin, or Ulamog and end the game on the spot. This also makes for a great Fireball for your Channel if that’s your bag (which it should be).
What I Don't Like: In the earlier stages of the game, the creature is quite anemic in size, which limits the threat potential. If you play this as a 1/1 or 2/2, for example, the opponent doesn’t have to care too much about the main body, so the ability to pressure them into killing it for treasures is gone. With most boards, I would expect this to need to be at least a 3/3 or a 4/4 for the opponent to really feel like the Hydra’s put them in a lose-lose situation.
Verdict: I’m much cooler on this card than a lot of folks in the cube community are. I think it’s worth testing out, but I’m not confident that it will be consistently great. I hope to be proven wrong because there’s a lot of potential here, but so far in testing it has been okay. Really needed to be a 4+ mana card before it was threatening, and exile-based removal has proven to be an easy out for the opponent. I’m testing it at 630, but not super confidant it’ll belong at this size forever.
Dust Animus
An efficient 1W creature.
What I Like: A 2/3 flying creature for 1W with multiple upsides is good, since it gums up combat really well, can attack into most anything in the early stages of the game, and simply has above-average stats for the cost. This is a fun and unique way to utilize the plot mechanic, allowing you to set the creature aside for a few turns, resolve it as a 4/5 flying lifelinker on the turn you drop your 5th land, and getting an insanely powerful board presence for cheap.
What I Don't Like: In most 16-17 land decks, the 4/5 mode will be hard to hit unless the game goes abnormally long.
Verdict: A 2/3 flying creature for 2 mana is good, but not game-breaking anymore. So a lot of this card’s value will be tied to the consistency of the plot trigger. In land-heavy control decks, this can provide good defense in the early game, and be a legitimate win condition for cheap that can be protected easily by your countermagic. Time will tell, but I’m happy to test this in the 540-630 range, and have high hopes that it will perform.
Legion Extruder
A red golem engine.
What I Like: In decks that have the right saturation of disposable artifacts, this is quite the engine card. It maintains card parity by shocking a target when it enters, and then allows you to turn your food, blood, maps, treasures, and other disposable artifacts into 3/3 golems, which are not insignificant bodies. In the late game, turning extra mana rocks into threats is a valuable thing to be able to do, and I expect decks with the right densities of these kinds of cards to be able to extract a lot of value from this card, allowing it to do a very formidable Bonecrusher Giant impression. Flipping this in and out of play with Welder effects will also feel quite rewarding. It’s also nice to shoehorn in additional outs to your own One Ring if needed.
What I Don't Like: This card needs to be in the right shell to be playable, so if you don’t support the artifact.dec or build decks that are loaded with disposable artifacts, it’ll be a poor performer.
Verdict: In the right deck, this is a synergy engine that will outpace Bonecrushers in terms of board impact. If you don’t play those kinds of decks, this card simply won’t be good and is an easy card to leave out. I’d play this at 450+ if you have a deep artifact.dec theme, and at 630+ with a shallow one. It can be left out of cubes that don’t play the artifact.dec at all.
Three Steps Ahead
A flexible big blue instant.
What I Like: This is a really flexible blue instant that can fill quite a few roles in the cube and holes in the curve. It can be a 3-mana counterspell if necessary or Catalog effect, which can discard important cards to the ‘yard if needed. At 4 mana it can function as a Phyrexian Metamorph of sorts; limited to your own cards and costing 4 mana, but doing so at instant speed. At 5 mana, it can do a decent impression of Mystic Confluence; hard countering a spell + draw 2 discard 1 is a good place to be. At 6 mana, it can do a halfway decent impression of a Torrential Gearhulk or a Sublime Epiphany by countering a spell and copying a creature. Note that it can also copy and draw while using to created token to ambush an attacker, which can also be quite good. And if you hit 8 mana you can get a bomb that does all three things. You can also “reset” your One Ring with the copying trigger since you can sacrifice the copied legendary artifact.
What I Don't Like: At 3 mana, the counter mode and the draw mode are somewhat unimpressive, so while they can be used there in a pinch, they’ll never feel great.
Verdict: The flexibility on this card is quite high, essentially allowing you to use one card to play the roles of multiple big blue instants. I’d test this out at 540+, and it might be worth it in cubes that are smaller than that just due to the slot equity it can save you.
Harvester of Misery
A controlling Shriekmaw variant.
What I Like: In creature-light control decks, this is quite the Shriekmaw. In decks that can weather the Infest effect, it can be a nasty 1-sided ETB effect in its 5-mana mode, and come stapled to a very threatening 5 power menace body. The evoke mode is nice, since it provides you with an instant-speed uncounterable Disfigure to wipe out an early threat when necessary. As an overall package, it’s a very playable card in any deck not featuring creatures with toughness < 3.
What I Don't Like: The number of decks that can play this is somewhat more limited than its OG counterpart, since if your deck features multiple creatures with 1-2 toughness the Infest mode is harder to break.
Verdict: I think this is worth testing at 540+ …potentially in cubes even smaller if you’re in need of a valuable black control creature.
Duelist of the Mind
A blue tempo 2-drop.
What I Like: 3 toughness, flying and vigilance for 2 mana allows this creature to chip in for damage and play defense in the early game quite effectively. It has synergy with all your draw effects, converting cantrips, brainstorms, Jace/Dack activations and others into additional power on your attack. Crimes you commit convert to looting effects and extra attacking power, allowing Duelist to contribute to graveyard-centric decks too. It’s also a powerful card in draw-7 decks, allowing this creature to bash for 8 through the air on turns where you’ve Wheeled. Defense, tempo, discard outlet, and combo creature; Duelist does a little bit of everything.
What I Don't Like: In decks that can’t reliably commit crimes or increase Duelist’s power with multi-draw effects, it’s a pretty mundane creature. It really needs the added synergy to be good, albeit synergy with Duelist is easy to find.
Verdict: This creature could be a 360/450-level threat depending on the amount of draw synergy you provide for it. With a draw-7 package included at 540, it’s a very safe inclusion. I expect this card to play well as a tempo creature, a utility creature, and a combo creature for quite some time.
Smuggler's Surprise
A flexible fatty-cheating support card.
What I Like: If you need threats and resources, this digs for them. If you have threats in your hand, this puts them into play. If you have big threats in play, this protects them. No matter the game state, there’s a way to garner value from Surprise. And putting two fat monsters to the table for 6 mana at instant speed is a bomb effect, and a game-ending play in most cases.
What I Don't Like: I wish this could get creatures/lands back that weren’t tied to the 4 that got milled. That templating frustrates me, because it removes options from what the card could be used for. Other than that, there’s not much to complain about here; maybe the 2-mana mode providing haste over one of the potentially redundant protection effects would be a nice way to also use this as a main phase game ender, but that’s likely asking too much.
Verdict: This card does a little bit of everything for decks looking to put big monsters to the board at a discounted price. It has already been wrecking havoc in testing. I would expect this to be worth testing for any 450+ card cube supporting a fatty-cheating archetype, and a pretty easy include at 540+.
Lavaspur Boots
A colorless Battery effect.
What I Like: This is half Bonesplitter half Rabbit Battery, with some pros and cons in comparison to each. Compared to Battery, this can’t attack on its own and doesn’t boost toughness, but it’s colorless, can’t be killed as a creature, and provides ward. Compared to Bonesplitter it provides less power to creatures that can already attack, but it grants haste to those freshly summoned and grants ward. For me, being colorless puts it ahead of Battery, and turning all your cheap creatures into legitimate mid- to late-game topdecks because of the added haste puts it ahead of Bonesplitter. The obnoxious little ward upside is just gravy on top of both comparisons. It’s a good target for Urza’s Saga since granting haste to a freshly created Karnstruct is really nice.
What I Don't Like: It doesn’t provide much additional pressure for an overall 2 mana investment on an existing board.
Verdict: Additional stoneforge target, saga target, and increased cheap artifact density that’s playable in a lot of shells. I think this is a very solid playable for cubes that spend time in the red zone, and is a pretty safe inclusion at 450+.
Vaultborn Tyrant
A big fat green dino!
What I Like: A 6/6 trampler that gains life and draws cards is nice. Triggering off all your other big monsters is nicer. Getting two of those wrapped up into one card is just fantastic. This is the kind of threat I want to be Sneaking and Breaching onto the board, and it works spectacularly well with Flash too. 12 trampling power, 6 gained life, and 2 drawn cards is a hell of a package all rolled up into one 7cc threat.
What I Don't Like: I wish it was a leaves play trigger instead of a death trigger to make it more resilient against exile-based removal.
Verdict: I think this is one of the new premium green fatties, and I think it’s a very playable option at all cube sizes 450 or bigger, especially if you support Sneak/Breach, Flash, and Recurring Nightmare packages.
Forsaken Miner
A new recursive 2-power 1-drop.
What I Like: For those that know me, this card is right up my alley. A 2-power 1-drop that can bring itself back from the dead is exactly what I look to be doing in my black section that supports both black aggro and a recursive sacrifice stax theme as well. This is an easy hurdle to clear to get it back in black, since the color can commit crimes with regularity. Importantly, Miner can also be used as a combo enabler of sorts with any card that sacrifices a creature as a part of the cost and then commits a crime with the effect. Goblin Bombardment, for example, puts Miner in the ‘yard as a part of the cost, and then the damage effect is a crime, allowing you to return it for a black mana …allowing you to machine gun down any targets in your way one mana at a time.
What I Don't Like: Entering tapped would’ve maybe been better than the can’t block clause in decks trying to set up the combo so it could play some early intermittent defense while assembling.
Verdict: If you support black aggro, recursive stax decks, or sacrifice combo, Forsaken Miner is an easy include. Any cube all the way down to 360 that plays those themes should play this card. If you don’t play black aggro, stax, or sacrifice decks, leave it out. Easy as that.
Sandstorm Salvager
A green Blade Splicer.
What I Like: This is essentially a Blade Splicer in green that sacrifices the first strike for an activated ability that puts +1/+1 counters and grants trample to all your token creatures. One activation makes the golem a 4/4 trample, which is quite formidable, and it also bolsters the rest of the tokens on your board, making this a good card on its own and an even better card if you can take advantage of additional +1/+1 counters via token synergy.
What I Don't Like: Unlike white, green isn’t engineered to take advantage of multiple ETB triggers like Splicer can, so decks where this shines will be more reliant on other creature tokens rather than making multiple golems.
Verdict: Probably better than Splicer at face value, since the 4/4 trample after one activation is so threatening. Worse in green since there’s less blink synergy, but still easy to find token creature synergy. I think this is a card that could realistically see play at 360 since it’s so good as a face-value threat and also has synergies to explore. 450+ for sure, and likely worth a test even in the smallest of cubes.
Slickshot Show-Off
A flying hasty Kiln Fiend variant.
What I Like: This is a great creature in spells matters decks. It applies a lot of pressure quickly and with evasion, it triggers off all noncreature spells instead of just instants and sorceries, and it has Plot which can be used in multiple ways to leverage the design. Plot makes this work quite well in situations where you want to guarantee a multi-spell combat step while keeping the bird safe from sorcery-speed removal, and it also plays particularly well in Izzet tempo decks where you can protect it from removal with counterspells that will also increase the damage it does. It’s a powerful evasive threat that hits hard and is easy to trigger, and the new keyword enables unique lines of play that help showcase how the ability can be used.
What I Don't Like: No real complaints; maybe a 3rd toughness? Too much to ask for on a card with this explosive potential though.
Verdict: Even without an exclusively supported spells matters theme, this triggers often enough to warrant testing even in the smallest of cubes. For those that do support a spellslinging archetype, this is a new stone-cold staple. I’d test this at 360 just at face value, and I’d windmill slam this into any cube of any size that supports a spells-matters deck.
Thanks for taking the time to read through the article! Feel free to post your comments here for discussion and share your feedback.
Cheers, and happy cubing!
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Set is fantastic after a quieter one with MKM, though I've yet to determine cuts for a couple of the cards we want to test.
Incidental token support has had a nice boost lately with Securitron Squadron and now Sandstorm Salvager.
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Figure this card is widely played and popular, so worth pointing out. This printing will also have the errata mentioned in the posts above (back in 2021 already), so it's worth replacing the original version in any case (unless you picked up the random errata'd printing from BG commander decks).
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When ETB or attacks, put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature.
Creatures your opponents control with -1/-1 counters on them can't block.
3/2
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Seems very decent, no? Killing X/1s on ETB or attack, or anything bigger can no longer block and is permanently shrunk, messing with combat math in either direction. Should be interesting removal and good for forcing through damage. I may test as I'm lacking black 3 drops, and as much as the Jurassic Park tie-in doesn't interest me, this was an iconic scene and a great card design.
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Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful
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I'm most hyped for Misery's Shadow. I always loved Nantuko Shade. I really want to like Feldon and Razorlash Transmogrant but I have been trying to shy away from can't block in my aggro two drops. From the looks of it you have an usually high density of nonbasics, so the latter should play super well for you. I may try them both anyway. With the Crown equipment, Fleshgorger and Gix all being very cubeable options also, black made out extremely well from the set.