MTG Salvation

I'll mention your curve again (see Blasphemous Act deck) as you have 12(!) 5 drop angels. I think it's worth shaving some of them in order to squeeze in some 4 drop angels since you can then curve Giada on turn 2 into 4 drop angel on turn 3.

Battle Angels of Tyr would definitely fit, but it's an expensive card and I don't know your budget.

Legion Angel could provide you with a stream of 4/3s so you don't run out of Angels to cast.

Firja's Retribution could be a good piece for the deck, giving you removal and a finisher all in one. It doesn't work with Giada though which is a bummer.

For the mana base, what about some copies of Emeria, the Sky Ruin to give you some staying power late game? Emeria's Call would also be a decent addition to the mana base and on theme.

I see the 1 mana Blue cantrips as the color's one drop. Even in Blue, you would like something to do turn 1, but most creatures don't cut it, so you run cantrips instead. I personally like to have a good density of cantrips to let decks function from the get-go.

I like Lightning Mauler for this archetype. As you mention your hard hitters cost three mana so it curves nicely if you don't have a mana dork on turn 1. Sure you are locked into one creature, but the opponent is heavily incentivized to kill the other soulbound creature, freeing your Mauler for the next threat.

Another card that has played well is Rabbit Battery. When things go perfectly, it is awkward because of the activation cost, but that is rarely the case. It sticks around through wraths and has the bonus of being a creature (compared to Lightning Greaves for example). Definite step down from the others, but at one mana it is solid!

In a cube with so few slots, I think I would opt for versatility. So Inquisition would be my pick over the Hymn as the mana prohibits Hymn from fitting in many decks.
I think Urza is a cool build around that can function by itself (2 bodies, a little ramp, mana sink).
Then I would pick either Venser or Glen as staple Blue cards that will play well in all decks. I lean towards Venser as I love flash and the board impact it can provide, but you can't really go wrong.

Got to play with the BR deck yesterday in 4 player FFA games. The deck was good! I got to go off with Citadel and Onyx a few times and it was fun. A Top would definitely be a good addition, but playing online with Top is slow and painful so I skipped it.
I got to go off with a Burning Wish for Past in Flames with a juicy GY, cast triple Dark Ritual to cast Onyx and then chain some cantrips for the win, while at one life.
Lot's of fun, but not super interactive deck. The combo turns is just you doing your thing while everybody watches.

First of all, in the draft portion, you get a colorless two drop that let's you stay open in terms of color and as opterown mentioned, strategy too.

Then, in gameplay the Copter hits hard (3 power, evasive dude) and filters your draws. If you are flooding out, swap some lands for potential gas. Need lands, ditch your 3-4 drops. Yes, this is the same ability as the Looter il-Kor, but it gives it to colors that may not usually have access to them (thinking mainly of white). It also hits way harder than the Looter.

The downside is that you "sacrifice" a creature every turn. However, if you are curving out, the creature you are tapping is likely one that has summoning sickness that wouldn't be attacking anyways. Or you have a random token from anything and you use that to crew. In practice, it's not very difficult to activate it and can sometimes get an attack in when you otherwise wouldn't have been able to.

Tldr;
- Flexible draft pick in terms of color and strategy
- Hard hitting evasive 2 drop
- Filtering draws in any color
- Not very hard to crew at an advantage

Night's Whisper and Demonic Tutor for sure. Having early game plays that are relevant late game is gold in multiplayer cubes. These ones even allow you to smooth out awkward draws so they are even more valuable in my mind. These 2 cards also easily slot into any deck making them even more interesting.

This might be off topic to the discussion, but the hybrid conversation in the other thread brought it to mind.
Cythare, thoughts on keeping the Tattermunge Maniac in, but as a green 1 drop and getting rid of Jungle Lion instead?

Even if it's not pretty on a spreadsheet, I think there is merit since you support both red and green aggro.

Other than that looks good

Taurean Mauler is a powerful 3 drop that scales well with multiple players.
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death can bring a lot of value. Though depending on where you classify it takes a red or a gold slot
Viashino Heretic as a source of damage and repeatable artifact destruction.
Chandra's Spitfire can do some work if you pack some mass damage spells like Earthquake.

How many players play in your multiplayer games? Is it a free-for-all type game?

From your collection, I like these a lot better (in that order) than a few you are running:

• Dualcaster Mage
  
• Sin Prodder
  
• Tuktuk the Explorer
  
• Goblin Sharpshooter
  
• Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
  
• Hissing Iguanar

Here are those I would cut :
Ball Lightning: hits one player once. Not enough for MP games
Dragon Egg: working for a 2/2 flyer seems mediocre
Hurloon Shaman: Nice global effect and attack deterrent, but tough to make use of it.
Kolaghan Forerunners: Inconsistent card depending on your board state.
Viashino Sandstalker: Better than Ball Lightning but very mana intensive and 4 damage to one player isn't going to do you a whole lot of good.
Wall of Lava: Doesn't really do anything.

There might also be a few cheap ones you could pick up if you are looking to improve your collection.

How easy it was to trigger metalcraft in my cube (noticing from galvanic blast) also inspired me to test mox opal. That card overperformed even more than galvanic blast.

fwiw whenever possible I tilt to include artifact creatures over non artifact if it’s close. Same with creatures that make artifacts.

for example, I play rabbit battery and bomat courier over all the red 1 mana 2/1’s. I’m thinking of including gingerbrute too.

I’m a fan of a high density of 0/1 mana artifacts to support a “trinket” style artifact deck that overlaps with traditional ramp based artifact decks.

-cheap tinker targets
-turbo charge tolarian academy quick
-empty hand quick for balance/draw 7
-optionality for urzas saga/trinket mage
-synergies with sai master thopterist, emry, kappa cannoneer, goblin welder, goblin engineer (all excellent cards if supported)
-pumps up karnstructs quick

I don’t run chromatic star but it would be high up on the trinkets I don’t run, that I’d consider running.

this is one experiment I’ve run in my cube that has been clearly successful.
It supports 2 artifact decks in a pod of 8. that might be too much for some palettes, but I like it.

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 TheGroglord »

Today's random card is Intangible Virtue



I have had this on the chopping block for a long time but it always manages to hang on because I like to support token decks with a couple of payoffs in the form of anthems. This is definitely the most narrow as it only effects token, but it's cheap and grants a usefull keyword.

Vigilance is one of the lesser keywords in a vaccume but in tokens it let's you alpha strike with impunity. Definitely not the ideal keyword, but plays better than you might expect.

BONUS RIDDELL: What must you first give, before you can keep?

Your Word

I been really impressed by Jeskai Ascendancy. I would argue its the best anthem variant of late.

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.