I'd cut Feldon for this, but I already cut Feldon a while ago. Has he really been that good for you guys? He literally did nothing for about ten drafts before we cut him...
When you say he literally did nothing...does that mean that he didnt get drafted, or that he was cast in games and still did nothing? This would really surprise me, as Feldon is absurd if you can untap with him in most situations. Even if all you have in your bin is a Sea Gate Oracle, it's still totally fine to buy time with free chump blocks and card draw, but if you have something like Wurmcoil Engine in there, your opponent is probably just going to lose.
I understand why the Raise Dead effect is being treated as "redundant" but I don't agree. It's only similar in that it's a card advantage effect. Black cube decks focus on graveyard interactions/abusing ETB effects on creatures, and many many times you would much rather have something SPECIFIC out of your bin than a random draw. It's also a different kind of value as most of the time your opponent has spent a card to deal with whatever you're Raising, and now has to deal with it again. ALSO, since most cubes are singleton cubes, getting back a creature with a unique effect or a combo piece creature is a pretty big deal (for example, imagine snapcaster'ing something early on, and then getting back Snapcaster with this later and snapcasting it, now that's value!).
That being said, I do wish that instead of Raise dead, the third mode said something along the lines of "Deal 2 damage to your opponent and gain 2 life". Black decks are usually hurting for lifegain. However, I think this card is JUST good enough to test in 540 because of instant speed.
As soon as I saw this card, i thought to myself "insta cube." 4 mana is a lot, but damn. Pretty much any red deck will be happy to play this card - blowing up artifacts is always good, but midrange/ramp/control is happy to have access to that PLUS a sweep, and aggro is happy to have that PLUS face damage. Obviously Smash is WAY cheaper which makes it generally better, but it's also more situational - seems pretty fine to me to have access to a deal-6 at 4 mana in a burn deck. And that's in my UN-powered cube (it still has a strong artifact theme). In a powered cube, this card is obviously crazy.
Let me attempt to shed a different light on this discussion; I VERY regularly cube with only two people. Glimpse, grid, and winston. In this environment, if your deck is even remotely aggressive, this card seems very valuable to have. Much of the time in a 2 player draft, it's really hard to set up a nice aggro curve, and sometimes when you do it's color intensive - for example, it's extremely hard to pull off mono-red or mono-white in a 2 player draft environment so usually you're in two colors. In, say, a boros aggro deck, your two-drop slot might have like, Kargan Dragonlord and Eight and a Half Tails or something along those lines, which means if your opening hand has T1 Goblin Guide and one of those white cards, you aren't doing anything on turn 2, but i'm happy to slam Endless One as a 2/2 in that situation. Same thing applies to being able to drop a turn 1 Isamaru and not getting stranded with the Dragonlord or Eidolon with no turn 2 play. Or if you DO have a decent early curve, having a 4/4 on turn 4 is a huge difference in pressure if you didnt naturally draw one of your 4 drops. What I like about this is that in aggro, you DON'T want more than 2-3 four-drops, and it's usually hard to get the exact ones you want in 2-player (usually Hellrider/Koth). And yes, obviously a vanilla 4/4 is lame compared to a Koth or Hellrider, but Koth or Hellrider don't also do double duty as fine aggro 2 and 3 drops, do they?
That's why I don't think it's fair to be comparing Endless one to any of its on-curve creature options, because you simply WONT ALWAYS HAVE THOSE on curve, whereas this card is a fine one to have in my opener or to topdeck at most stages of the game.
This card is much better than Chimeric Mass. Due to the activation cost, you cant play Chimeric Mass on turn 2 to trade with an early aggro threat, or as a turn 4 4/4. Activation cost means you're always one mana behind the curve when you cast it. Being an artifact also opens you up to 2-for-1s.
I'm looking at this card the way I do charms - while each mode seems boring, it's the flexibility of having any of them when you need it that makes it more interesting/useful.
Oh yeah, don't get me wrong - most cubes (mine included) already have enough ramp targets. But this is a card that is only a ramp target if it needs to be. Are you ramping, but playing against aggro? Turn 2 rampant growth into a 4/4 on turn 3 is just fine against that. Even without ramp in hand, a lot of times you are just looking to survive, and this card is good for that at every part of the early game (Turn 2 2/2 or turn 3 3/3 can buy you some time against aggro if needed).
I think people are dramatically underrating this card in cube. I'm going to snap-include it in my 540 and I predict it will always be good. The fact that it cant be hit by artifact removal makes it even more reliable. Many, many decks will be happy to have this card - ramp decks get a card that's simultaneously a late-game threat but can also be used to contest the board early. Aggro hands will always curve out with this. The only deck I see that would be unhappy to play this card is control, but I'm fine with that as control has plenty of tools anyway.
How on earth has no one mentioned Bring to Light yet? In Worldknit it's the actual dream, but green having access to 4+ colors isnt hard in cube anyway. 5 mana go-cast-any-5-drop seems really powerful and fun.
When you say he literally did nothing...does that mean that he didnt get drafted, or that he was cast in games and still did nothing? This would really surprise me, as Feldon is absurd if you can untap with him in most situations. Even if all you have in your bin is a Sea Gate Oracle, it's still totally fine to buy time with free chump blocks and card draw, but if you have something like Wurmcoil Engine in there, your opponent is probably just going to lose.
That being said, I do wish that instead of Raise dead, the third mode said something along the lines of "Deal 2 damage to your opponent and gain 2 life". Black decks are usually hurting for lifegain. However, I think this card is JUST good enough to test in 540 because of instant speed.
That's why I don't think it's fair to be comparing Endless one to any of its on-curve creature options, because you simply WONT ALWAYS HAVE THOSE on curve, whereas this card is a fine one to have in my opener or to topdeck at most stages of the game.
I'm looking at this card the way I do charms - while each mode seems boring, it's the flexibility of having any of them when you need it that makes it more interesting/useful.
I'll definitely be testing this.
Early game, grab Genesis and two small utility creatures (witness, sakura, whatever you need)
mid game, grab Reya Dawnbringer and two game-ending fatties.
late game, grab three fatties.
it's soooo good