Biggest drawback to OG Bolas is that he costs 8... this one is also easier on the colored mana portion of the cost. Definitely worth testing, given the strength of these abilities. Not sure if he'll stick over the other, but can't wait to play it and see.
There are also gold border versions of a few other very expensive staples, namely Gaea's Cradle ($30), Rishadan Port ($3), and Force of Will ($13). They won't be tournament legal, but they're "real" Magic product and not proxies, and they actually look kind of awesome.
I have a hunch that just from the name of this card, WOTC thinks it is wicked good (in general... not necessarily for cube). But even if he just hits 20% of cube cards, that means he pretty much hits something in nearly every deck drafted... after all, cards with good activated abilities tend to be the ones you want in your deck. I mean, just looking at blue creatures, that hits Cryptologist, Jace, Glen Elendra Archmage, Whirler Rogue, Meloku, and Aetherling... all things that ideally you'd want to trigger multiple times in a game (or multiple times in one turn...).
Also important to recognize this card is great with Braids/Smokestack/Sac-for-value, unlike many of the other 1 mana creatures in black. Potentially even better than Gravecrawler, since the condition is perhaps easier to meet for recursion, unless your cube is heavier on zombies than most.
Unlike Battalion, the creatures don't have to be attacking to get the effect... he comes online if you have three other creatures. There are so many possible things you can do to get to that point on turn five, even if you don't have a single creature beforehand:
--Lingering Souls + FB
--Spectral Procession
--Any five-drop army-in-a-can
--Elspeth Sun's Champion (with a little ramp)
--Sram's Expertise
And that's without even getting into other colors. Not saying it's a sure inclusion by any stretch, but I think this will play much better than Battalion creatures did. Unfortunately, though, it still is a 4CMC card in white... that's a hard spot to break into.
Unlike plenty of other conditional counters, this is simply never dead: you can always draw a card if you can't find a use for it. And the fact that it cycles for a single blue mana is also sweet. Seems like a shoe-in for large cubes, and worth considering for medium-sized ones (I certainly plan to test it at 540).
Not all that long ago, I ran the mono colored cycling lands as an experiment, and they were solid...these are obviously better, being both dual and fetchable. I currently only run four lands per guild, but more than any other duals we've seen lately, these make me want to go up a notch....
I'm not sure I have room for this, but I think it's almost a sure thing we will get at least one cubeable creature with this mechanic. This card is about as boring an implementation as this mechanic could have, and it's already nearly good enough.
My box was terrible... Damnation, Marsh Flats, and no other card worth more than about $6... but I can't complain, really, because every other box of Masters product I've opened has been solid or better. Luck had to run out some time, and it was still a blast to draft.
Agreed. If they could put in some mechanism to allow traders to sell points, or at least no longer expressly forbid it, PT would take off again in a moment. I know I'd be delighted to send cards like crazy if I thought I could cash in the points, even at a reduced rate.
Hostake Taker
Ruin Raider
Treasure Map
Chart a Course
And might also try the Thalia's Lancers addition... though not entirely sure on that either.
Sort of nice to have a set where I'm not chasing a bunch of cards. Hopefully the next one will be more exciting for Cube.
--Lingering Souls + FB
--Spectral Procession
--Any five-drop army-in-a-can
--Elspeth Sun's Champion (with a little ramp)
--Sram's Expertise
And that's without even getting into other colors. Not saying it's a sure inclusion by any stretch, but I think this will play much better than Battalion creatures did. Unfortunately, though, it still is a 4CMC card in white... that's a hard spot to break into.