I'm polishing off my multiplayer set review but for some reason I'm getting some bizarre formatting bug that I can't seem to fix. My [b]bold[/b]ed words are all messed-up and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it :/. Can anyone help me out?
[b]Multicolor[/b]
Blazing Hellhound: Good sac outlets tend to be cheap, free to activate and typically have worthwhile effects. This is none of those things.
Global Grade [b]D-[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Blood-Cursed Knight: A 3/2 for 3 is obviously unplayable and the prospect of a big lifelinker isn't enough to convince me that this is a solid Magic card. Even if it were simply a 4/3 lifelinker for 3 that's still basically only going to see play in Constructed assuming that your meta was on the aggressive side of the spectrum and that you needed early blockers. Given that some % of the time this card is just worthless I can't say that I recommend acquiring them.
Citadel Castellan: A vigilant 4/5 for 3 is still basically just a Leatherback Baloth which isn't a card that you generally want to field in a MP setting. Medium-sized beaters can only take you so far because turning them sideways is probably the worst possibly way to go about winning. Vigilance obviously helps since your attacks become "free" but that's still an extremely fair gameplan that probably won't cut it in most settings.
Possessed Skaab: The fact that it's a Snapcaster Mage of sorts makes me think that there's a home for this in EDH. Every Thraximundar deck that I've ever faced has played Rooftop Storm and so if you're aggressively tutoring for it anyways then this card could potentially make its way into the 99. This obviously also applies to Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and other Zombie EDH decks as well but the most competitive list is probably Anthrax himself which is why I used him as the primary example. The card seems mostly unplayable otherwise though.
Reclusive Artificer: A 2/3 Haste for 4? Right... Either way this card is actually decent in the right shell, namely one that fields things like Darksteel Citadel, Seat of the Synod, Great Furnace, Mox Opal, Thoughtcast, etc. At some point she becomes a Flametongue Kavu which is a decent playable in most settings. She's obviously complete garbage in formats such as Cube and even in EDH I wouldn't feel comfortable sleeving her up. Not only is she low impact but you'll struggle to get value from the 2/3 body and it'll be tough to guarantee kills with her nuke. I still think that she has a shot in Constructed though because it's just so easy to play a deck that's comprised almost entire of artifacts and she definitely holds her own in those kinds of scenarios.
Thunderclap Wyvern: Lords are usually worthless in Cube but otherwise people can't seem to get enough of them. The stats on this thing aren't impressing by any means by anyone playing a UW/x "fliers" deck is still probably going to want some. If you're curving Pride of the Clouds into Warden of Evos Isle into Radiant, Archangel I just have to imagine that you'll be in the market for this as well. This is one of those things where true playability doesn't matter insofar as it promotes synergy and enables people to dream big. I don't personally care for it but at the same time I know that it will make a lot of casual players happy and that in turn makes me happy.
[b]Overall Grade: D-[/b]
[b]Closing Thought:[/b] Nothing stands out to me as a powerful playable that you should make a concerted effort to acquire. I could easily live without all of these.
[b]Artifact[/b]
Alchemist's Vial: Anytime you see a cheap artifact that says "draw a card" on it think of Second Sunrise, Faith's Reward and Open the Vaults. By combining the two it becomes ridiculously easy to draw your entire deck, generate arbitrarily large sums of mana (think Krark-Clan Ironworks) and kill people with just about anything under the sun. The end goal is usually to draw your deck, enter an infinite combo where you sacrifice Pyrite Spellbomb to deal 2 damage, recur it with one of your White spells, put it on the bottom of your library and redraw it with Conjurer's Bauble. While I couldn't imagine playing this card in any other archetype (and even then it's probably not optimal) it's worth keeping all that in mind.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Alhammarret's Archive: I'm going to start by saying that these kinds of cards are terrible in Cube (too slow and inconsistent) and they're virtually always going to be too clunky for Constructed. Remember, we're not talking about a Staff of Nin-esque draw engine that naturally rips an additional card per turn. Your 5 mana investment inherently returns nothing. Even if you then cast a draw spell, say Jace's Ingenuity, you've still paid 5 Sorcery-speed mana to draw 3 cards on a later turn. That's terrible. Realistically you have to cast at least 2-3 decent draw spells before you'll see a return on this type of investment. Doubling lifegain is "fine" too obviously but Boon Reflection never has and never will a strong playable in any format so think of that as a bonus and not the primary benefit (unless you're playing a dedicated lifegain deck obviously). Anyways, this is the reason why you don't see cards like Doubling Cube and Mirari's Wake very frequently in Constructed. They're slow, mana intensive and require that you draw and play other powerful spells prior to sticking them. By the time you start being paid dividends the game can already be over.
Moving on I'd like to address to subject of EDH. While there are plenty of different ways to analyze this card in the format I want to stress that it's still a 5 mana spell that "doesn't do anything." As such the best versions of the best decks probably won't play it. In fact, I can almost guarantee you that the absolutely most competitive version of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic wouldn't even touch it. Ultra competitive EDH is a turn 4 format and even tier 1.5 decks are still winning games on turns 5-6 with reasonable consistency so this is by no means some insane bomb that will revolutionize the format. I'm not saying that it's unplayable, I'm just reminding everyone that "good in EDH" means different things to different people so don't be surprised when you see a card like this that has a ton of lovers and haters. The fact of the matter is that it'll be a bomb in some circles and a complete dud in others.
With that out of the way I want to stress that I do still love this card for EDH. While there's a very small subset of people who play Magic at an ultra-competitive level it represents but a tiny fraction of the total MTG population. The vast majority of Magic players sling it casually on kitchen tables and not in LGSes or venues competing for points. While the best versions of the best decks won't field this thing it's perfect for the overwhelming majority who just want to play big silly cards with over-the-top effects. This doesn't mean that you should play with bad cards like Alhammarret, High Arbiter but you should feel free to go nuts with extremely fun and powerful build-around-mes. Hammy's Archive is a powerful card in the context of a fair, grindy, 10+ turn game of Magic in which you draw cards and gain life on a consistent basis. Moreover, these kinds of cards also lead to fun and exciting stories which are usually more important than the results of the match. Curving one of these into a Sphinx's Revelation is just plain fun and win or lose it's something that you're going to remember. That's why these kinds of cards are so important to the health of the game: they get people excited and coming back for more.
Chief of the Foundry: It's no Master of Etherium but I have to imagine that people playing decks with Steel Overseer and Cranial Plating are probably going to want this guy. While I wouldn't label him as "competitive" I have a healthy amount of respect for cards that make casual players happy and any Lord qualifies in that department. People love playing with them no matter how good/bad they actually are because the effect feels relatively unique, powerful and fun to experiment with. Just don't go jamming this thing into your Cubes because he's not going to accomplish much of anything.
Hangarback Walker: Now this is what I'm looking for in a scaling threat. I want to start by saying that this is a 2 drop and that you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that this card is a bomb that scales well into the lategame. Paying 10 mana for a vanilla 5/5 that does something when it dies isn't much of payoff. Rather, this card is at its best when it's jammed on turn 2 or 3 (turn 3 following a turn 2 mana rock is sweet) at which point you can grow it whenever you have spare mana and not have to worry about what happens to it. Obviously if you have nothing better to do with your mana just run it out for as much as you can but I don't see any reason to sandbag it in the hopes of a "big payday" down the road. By jamming it early on it doesn't matter how big it gets nor when it dies because at that point it's a low risk investment with a potentially high reward. If you pay 6 mana total for a 5/5 that produces 5 1/1 fliers when it dies then that's a good deal. If you never get there, well, that's ok too. Don't feel as though you must grow it every turn and don't sweat it if your 2 drop doesn't win the game.
Helm of the Gods: I'll give the usual disclaimer that these kinds of cards are worthless in Cube and remind you that the other ratings reflect the card as it exists within the sphere dedicated Enchantment decks. It just makes absolutely no sense to rate it "in a vacuum." Ethereal Armor is an extremely powerful Magic card when you're jamming them on a Slippery Bogle/Gladecover Scout type threat (i.e. a cheap Hexproofer) and are then following it up with something like Daybreak Coronet. It kinda sucks that this card is an Artifact and given that it has a non-0 equip cost it's probably just worse than Ancestral Mask but the option is still there to play it if you want more cheap pump spells for your Bogle decks. I wouldn't expect those shells to play it over their current suite of Auras, especially versions of the deck with Daybreak Coronet, but it's possible that running 1-2 turns out to be correct. The other archetype that could play it would be the Enchantress style Prison decks who could, in theory, pair it with something like Mobilization to beat people down. I can't tell you why you'd ever elect to run that over Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience, Luminarch Ascension, Sigil of the Empty Throne or any other good win condition for that matter but it's an option I guess. Otherwise I couldn't even begin to imagine a single EDH deck that would play this thing either, the Voltron generals have access to vastly superior options, but maybe the Bant pillow-fort deck (think Stony Silence, Sterling GroveRest in Peace, Solitary Confinement, Ghostly Prion, Propaganda, Sphere of Safety, etc.) might play it for Commander damage kill potential. It's unlikely, I'd never add it to my own versions of the deck, but it's conceivable.
Jayemdae Tome: Not remotely playable in any format. If you've sleeving this up in EDH (I don't care if you're playing mono-White/Red) then you're doing it wrong. When you're paying 16 mana for a Jace's Ingenuity or 20 mana for an Opportunity there's just no possible way for you to be pulling ahead of a serious multiplayer group. You're just spinning your wheels and delaying the inevitable.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Mage-Ring Responder: This card it trash. Hell, it would still be trash even if it didn't cost 7 to untap. That my friends should tell you everything that you need to know about its playability lol. Myr Battlesphere or this? Wurmcoil Engine or this? Sundering Titan or this? Sylvan Primordial or this? Sepulchral Primordial or this? Angel of Serenity or this? Deadeye Navigator or this? Insurrection or this? Yeah, we're done here. This is a 7 drop that doesn't even come remotely close to winning the game in a world where plenty of alternatives can. The fact that it has to attack in order to extract any significant value is just sad.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Orbs of Warding: I can't remember the last time that I've seen Witchbane Orb played and a 5 mana version with a trivial upside probably isn't going to drastically alter that figure. Very few decks must target players in order to win games and MP isn't the time nor the place to whip out lists filled with burn and/or targeted discard. Unless you're trying to counter a specific subset of combo decks the effect isn't especially relevant in most games. I still plan on acquiring a copy of this card, you never know when you'll need it for EDH or Cube, but I wouldn't maindeck this effect unless I had a strong suspicion that I'd need it.
Global Grade [b]D[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Prism Ring: Pure lifegain in all of its forms has never been especially competitive and I don't see why this card would break that mold. While I could easily envision games where it gains 10-15 life (if not more) that figure doesn't impress me because MP typically has nothing to do with racing, trading hits, burning players out, etc. When someone wins it's usually in a spectacular fashion and it's not uncommon to see 3 digits of damage dealt during the final turns of games. While 10-15 life may buffer you against Exsanguinate effects you're still fighting a losing battle at that point because "bad spells" are rarely effective answers to "good spells." You basically have to be doing something powerful/unfair yourself because otherwise you're just delaying the inevitable. I'm also ignoring all of the occasions where you don't draw this on turn 1, when it dies to mass removal, where people play combo decks, etc. so when you think about there's not much going for this thing. I can somewhat get behind Sun Droplet, I don't play it myself but I can see why others would, but this isn't on that level I don't think.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Pyromancer's Goggles: I'll echo what I said about Alhammaret's Archive in that this card is probably too slow for Constructed and too conditional for Cube which realistically only leaves EDH. While I like the idea of paying negative mana for a Reverberate effect what worries me about this card is how few Red spells actually benefit from doubling. Red deck typically play cards such as Vandalblast, Past in Flames, Ruination, Obliterate, Blasphemous Act and Insurrection that just plain don't benefit from being doubled. Now, it obviously also plays cards like Gamble, Comet Storm, Chaos Warp and Mana Geyser as well, I'm not suggesting otherwise, but my point is that a large % of its spells won't benefit from a Fork. Remember, a big reason why Reverberate and Wild Ricochet are employed is because they can target opposing spells so they're realistically never going to be dead. The Goggles, on the other hand, sometimes they do nothing. It's also worth nothing that whereas duel decks usually play a ton of spells like Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, again, you just won't see those in large numbers in a multiplayer sphere. All-in-all I have low expectations for this thing and I don't really expect it to make many waves. I jope to one day be proven wrong about it, I'd love for this kind of card to be actively good, I just don't see how that's probably when it figures to have no effect on a huge % of your spells.
Sigil of Valor: Most people probably just glossed over this card but it's way closer to being playable than you probably think. Any piece of Equipment that's cheap to cast and Equip but that still has a potentially powerful effect is worth considering in your creature-based builds. I can almost guarantee you that if it didn't say "each other creature" that it would basically be a staple. I've played against Sublime Archangel enough to know just how powerful that effect is and while you lose the 4/3 flier you gain a ton of durability. Ultimately I don't think that this card makes the cut, that "lost" +1/+1 does break it for me, but this significantly closer to being a legitimate bomb than most of the crap that Wizards has churned out in these past few years.
Global Grade [b]D-[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Sword of the Animist: This card reminds me of Mask of Memory in many ways. While it'll never rival uber equipment such as Skullclamp and/or Sword of Light and Shadow it's still powerful enough to provide a lot of value in a casual, multiplayer setting at a price point that average players can afford. I'm not entirely sure that that second part is true, I think that it might be pre-selling for like $6.00, but hopefully it'll crash and burn once it sees 0 play. Assuming that this thing becomes virtually free I do strongly encourage casual players to scoop some up to flesh out their lists. Much like Mask of Memory it's a fantastic way to squeeze some extra value from your critters since it's usually easy to find "open" players in large, Chaos games. Obviously Sword of the Animist doesn't even have to connect, just an attack is fine, but it's nice when you're not suiciding threats in the process of ramping. I'm glad the Equip cost is only 2 since it would have been unplayable otherwise but that's just low enough that you can equip, attack, and still cast a spell every turn (more or less).
For what it's worth I think that these cards are significantly more "fun" (I know how subjective that term is) in formats such as Cube than things like Sword of Body and Mind. This is just a small rant so feel free to skip ahead but I personally hate what Swords of X and Y do to multiplayer games. Far too often they'e 1-card kill conditions that slaughter players outright. The protections usually blank anything and everything that they could otherwise do to interact at which point they become a fish in a barrel. Seeing someone lose 15 minutes into a 2 hour EDH game is just disheartening and so I personally advocate against the use of Swords whenever possible. I also refuse to add them to my Cubes because I just don't like the play patterns that they create. The point here is that even though cards like Sword of the Animist and Loxodon Warhammer are objectively worse than things like Swords there is some merit to omitting them from your decks/Cubes.
Global Grade [b]C-[/b]
[b]Cubeworthy[/b]
War Horn: Anything that says "attacking creatures" on it is probably unplayable and War Horn is no exception. Multiplayer Magic just isn't a format that revolves around curving out with lots of small dudes and turning them sideways. There's way more blocking, ramping, card drawing and overpowering your adversaries with unfair tactics.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
[b]Overall Grade: C[/b]
[b]Closing Thoughts:[/b] For better or for worse Alhammarret's Archive is going to see a lot of EDH play and even if I don't plan on abusing the card much myself it would be foolish of me to dismiss such an obvious casual staple. People just love doubling effects in general and a double double (where are we, Tim Horton's?) is twice as nice. Otherwise I really like Hangerback Walker as a cheap 2-drop in Artifact-based decks because other than Arcbound Ravager and Steel Overseer that slot is hurting. Also bear in mind that neither card is especially budget-friendly so let's not assume that everyone can afford to run either. While he's not my cup of tea I expect Chief of the Foundry to straddle next to Master of Etherium in said artifact decks because casual players just plain adore lords. Nothing else jumps off the page at me but Sword of the Animist is a tier above the other potential playables and I do expect to see it a fair amount in slower formats such as EDH. Finally, Helm of the Gods, Pyromancer's Goggles and even Orbs of Warding could all see some amount of play but I'm not much stock in any of them.
[b]Land[/b]
Battlefield Forge et al.: As much as I dislike hating on dual lands that don't ETBT I cannot stand Painlands in a multiplayer setting. Games go long and life total matters a lot and you just plain can't afford to take 6+ extra damage from your spells in most instances. While these aren't quite as bad as Mana Confluence and the like it's still extremely difficult to make them work in my experience. If you have absolutely nothing better to run and can't afford to play with ETBT lands then do what you have to do but in general I strongly discourage investing in these kinds of lands for casual, multiplayer purposes.
Global Grade [b]D[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Evolving Wilds: As much as we'd all love to crack a Polluted Delta for an Underground Sea on turn 1 every game the reality is that most Magic decks are built on relatively tight budgets. While Evolving Wilds will never be the best option for color fixing it's extremely cheap, trivial to acquire and does an adequate job of fixing your colors. Beyond that I'm not exactly sure how to grade these types of lands because they're significantly worse than the versions that are 72x more expensive but from a practical standpoint they're cheap and get the job done. If you owned real Fetchlands then you'd clearly never play with them but for your average Joe they're the glue that bring your lists together. Whether you want to call that a B, C, D, F, it doesn't really matter because you're not playing it because you want to. Rather, you field these kinds of cards because you have to and at that point it's just a matter of weighing the pros and cons between things like Evolving Wilds and other budget options such as Guildgates, Bouncelands, etc.
Global Grade [b]D[/b]
[b]Cubeworthy[/b]
Foundry of the Consuls: I'm all for "spell lands" that still have value in the later stages of the game but a pair of 1/1 fliers isn't going to cut it in a competitive sphere. Even if your gamplan involves jamming Life from the Loam and/or Crucible of Worlds you're still not going to make much head-way. For a 1/1 flier to have relevance you'd need to be playing with Auras, Equipment and/or Bestow effects but even then this card is a far cry from amazing. I suppose that it's better than actual nothing if your 1-2 color deck has no need for basics (Vedalken Shackles et al.) but by no means is this a powerful card that you should be actively looking to play.
Global Grade [b]D-[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/c]
Mage-Ring Network: A colorless version of Dreadship Reef isn't going to interest most people but the fact that it doesn't cost mana to activate is a decent bonus. Mono-colored decks probably won't care much about the color of the mana to begin with so any increase in quantity is probably a significant upgrade. Obviously you have have to tap it so you can't split the mana across multiple turns but that's a largely irrelevant drawback in my mind. Paying the 1 is significantly worse than the tap requirement. Anyways, I think that these kinds of Storage Lands are underplayed for their cost. While they may not be able to compete with the likes of Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Cloudpost, Cabal Coffers, etc. they're basically free to purchase and they can still enable you to cast stupidly expensive spells pas ta certain point. I personally feel that if you're not fielding some amount of "Insurrection" type spells that you're just plain doing it wrong. Turning fair creatures sideways and casting removal spells can only take you so far so you really should be looking to support the most unfair gameplans imaginable. Anyways, Storage Lands are sweet because 1-2 of them ramp-up quickly and before long they allow you to jam things like Debt to the Deathless for millions. Given that they don't ETBT to begin with they don't exactly slow you down and you only have to store mana when you don't have anything else to do with your mana. Since the payoff is the ability to cast an extremely unfair spell/sequence of spells I see very little reason to omit these kinds of lands from your 1-2 color builds assuming that you don't have access to superior alternatives.
Global Grade [b]C[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Rogue's Passage: This is one the cards that I completely overlooked when it was first printed. Paying 5 mana for a "marginal" effect didn't interest me at the time but since then I've come to appreciate just how powerful it actually is. From Wight of Precinct Six to Hydra Omnivore Black and Green can field a ton of extremely large creatures that struggle to actually connect with people but when they do, watch out, because they don't mess around. While this card has basically no value in the early stages of the game it's still a land that doesn't ETBT so unless you're playing with 3+ colors and have strict requirements it doesn't cost much to run it. Where the card shines is in the later stages of the game where board stalls and chump blockers become a serious problem. The ability to connect with the aforementioned "Lord of Extinction" type threats is a huge game and Commander damage is a very real win condition in EDH. Even if you look outside of Black and Green the others still have some large beaters at their disposal (think Taurean Mauler) and Equipment is still a thing. You usually don't need many hits from a Strata Scythe/Bonehoard to take someone down so anything that can force them through is a worthwhile effect.
[b]Overall Grade: D-[/b]
[b]Closing Thoughts:[/b] Nothing to see here folks. Painslands suck, Rogue's Passage/Evolving Wilds were never expensive nor difficult to acquire, Foundry of the Consuls is too weak to see serious play and Mage-Ring Network only works in a very small subset of 1-2 color decks as a budget alternative. Cue the "whan whan" foghorn sound effect.
I'm polishing off my multiplayer set review but for some reason I'm getting some bizarre formatting bug that I can't seem to fix. My bolded words are all messed-up and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it :/. Can anyone help me out?
Multicolor
Blazing Hellhound: Good sac outlets tend to be cheap, free to activate and typically have worthwhile effects. This is none of those things.
Global Grade D- Not Cubeworthy
Blood-Cursed Knight: A 3/2 for 3 is obviously unplayable and the prospect of a big lifelinker isn't enough to convince me that this is a solid Magic card. Even if it were simply a 4/3 lifelinker for 3 that's still basically only going to see play in Constructed assuming that your meta was on the aggressive side of the spectrum and that you needed early blockers. Given that some % of the time this card is just worthless I can't say that I recommend acquiring them.
Constructed Grade D-
EDH + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Citadel Castellan: A vigilant 4/5 for 3 is still basically just a Leatherback Baloth which isn't a card that you generally want to field in a MP setting. Medium-sized beaters can only take you so far because turning them sideways is probably the worst possibly way to go about winning. Vigilance obviously helps since your attacks become "free" but that's still an extremely fair gameplan that probably won't cut it in most settings.
Constructed Grade D-
EDH + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Possessed Skaab: The fact that it's a Snapcaster Mage of sorts makes me think that there's a home for this in EDH. Every Thraximundar deck that I've ever faced has played Rooftop Storm and so if you're aggressively tutoring for it anyways then this card could potentially make its way into the 99. This obviously also applies to Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and other Zombie EDH decks as well but the most competitive list is probably Anthrax himself which is why I used him as the primary example. The card seems mostly unplayable otherwise though.
EDH Grade D
Constructed + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Reclusive Artificer: A 2/3 Haste for 4? Right... Either way this card is actually decent in the right shell, namely one that fields things like Darksteel Citadel, Seat of the Synod, Great Furnace, Mox Opal, Thoughtcast, etc. At some point she becomes a Flametongue Kavu which is a decent playable in most settings. She's obviously complete garbage in formats such as Cube and even in EDH I wouldn't feel comfortable sleeving her up. Not only is she low impact but you'll struggle to get value from the 2/3 body and it'll be tough to guarantee kills with her nuke. I still think that she has a shot in Constructed though because it's just so easy to play a deck that's comprised almost entire of artifacts and she definitely holds her own in those kinds of scenarios.
Constructed Grade D+
EDH + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Thunderclap Wyvern: Lords are usually worthless in Cube but otherwise people can't seem to get enough of them. The stats on this thing aren't impressing by any means by anyone playing a UW/x "fliers" deck is still probably going to want some. If you're curving Pride of the Clouds into Warden of Evos Isle into Radiant, Archangel I just have to imagine that you'll be in the market for this as well. This is one of those things where true playability doesn't matter insofar as it promotes synergy and enables people to dream big. I don't personally care for it but at the same time I know that it will make a lot of casual players happy and that in turn makes me happy.
Constructed + EDH Grade D
Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Overall Grade: D- Closing Thought: Nothing stands out to me as a powerful playable that you should make a concerted effort to acquire. I could easily live without all of these.
Artifact
Alchemist's Vial: Anytime you see a cheap artifact that says "draw a card" on it think of Second Sunrise, Faith's Reward and Open the Vaults. By combining the two it becomes ridiculously easy to draw your entire deck, generate arbitrarily large sums of mana (think Krark-Clan Ironworks) and kill people with just about anything under the sun. The end goal is usually to draw your deck, enter an infinite combo where you sacrifice Pyrite Spellbomb to deal 2 damage, recur it with one of your White spells, put it on the bottom of your library and redraw it with Conjurer's Bauble. While I couldn't imagine playing this card in any other archetype (and even then it's probably not optimal) it's worth keeping all that in mind.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Alhammarret's Archive: I'm going to start by saying that these kinds of cards are terrible in Cube (too slow and inconsistent) and they're virtually always going to be too clunky for Constructed. Remember, we're not talking about a Staff of Nin-esque draw engine that naturally rips an additional card per turn. Your 5 mana investment inherently returns nothing. Even if you then cast a draw spell, say Jace's Ingenuity, you've still paid 5 Sorcery-speed mana to draw 3 cards on a later turn. That's terrible. Realistically you have to cast at least 2-3 decent draw spells before you'll see a return on this type of investment. Doubling lifegain is "fine" too obviously but Boon Reflection never has and never will a strong playable in any format so think of that as a bonus and not the primary benefit (unless you're playing a dedicated lifegain deck obviously). Anyways, this is the reason why you don't see cards like Doubling Cube and Mirari's Wake very frequently in Constructed. They're slow, mana intensive and require that you draw and play other powerful spells prior to sticking them. By the time you start being paid dividends the game can already be over.
Moving on I'd like to address to subject of EDH. While there are plenty of different ways to analyze this card in the format I want to stress that it's still a 5 mana spell that "doesn't do anything." As such the best versions of the best decks probably won't play it. In fact, I can almost guarantee you that the absolutely most competitive version of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic wouldn't even touch it. Ultra competitive EDH is a turn 4 format and even tier 1.5 decks are still winning games on turns 5-6 with reasonable consistency so this is by no means some insane bomb that will revolutionize the format. I'm not saying that it's unplayable, I'm just reminding everyone that "good in EDH" means different things to different people so don't be surprised when you see a card like this that has a ton of lovers and haters. The fact of the matter is that it'll be a bomb in some circles and a complete dud in others.
With that out of the way I want to stress that I do still love this card for EDH. While there's a very small subset of people who play Magic at an ultra-competitive level it represents but a tiny fraction of the total MTG population. The vast majority of Magic players sling it casually on kitchen tables and not in LGSes or venues competing for points. While the best versions of the best decks won't field this thing it's perfect for the overwhelming majority who just want to play big silly cards with over-the-top effects. This doesn't mean that you should play with bad cards like Alhammarret, High Arbiter but you should feel free to go nuts with extremely fun and powerful build-around-mes. Hammy's Archive is a powerful card in the context of a fair, grindy, 10+ turn game of Magic in which you draw cards and gain life on a consistent basis. Moreover, these kinds of cards also lead to fun and exciting stories which are usually more important than the results of the match. Curving one of these into a Sphinx's Revelation is just plain fun and win or lose it's something that you're going to remember. That's why these kinds of cards are so important to the health of the game: they get people excited and coming back for more.
EDH Grade B
Constructed Grade C
Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Chief of the Foundry: It's no Master of Etherium but I have to imagine that people playing decks with Steel Overseer and Cranial Plating are probably going to want this guy. While I wouldn't label him as "competitive" I have a healthy amount of respect for cards that make casual players happy and any Lord qualifies in that department. People love playing with them no matter how good/bad they actually are because the effect feels relatively unique, powerful and fun to experiment with. Just don't go jamming this thing into your Cubes because he's not going to accomplish much of anything.
Constructed + EDH Grade D
Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Hangarback Walker: Now this is what I'm looking for in a scaling threat. I want to start by saying that this is a 2 drop and that you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that this card is a bomb that scales well into the lategame. Paying 10 mana for a vanilla 5/5 that does something when it dies isn't much of payoff. Rather, this card is at its best when it's jammed on turn 2 or 3 (turn 3 following a turn 2 mana rock is sweet) at which point you can grow it whenever you have spare mana and not have to worry about what happens to it. Obviously if you have nothing better to do with your mana just run it out for as much as you can but I don't see any reason to sandbag it in the hopes of a "big payday" down the road. By jamming it early on it doesn't matter how big it gets nor when it dies because at that point it's a low risk investment with a potentially high reward. If you pay 6 mana total for a 5/5 that produces 5 1/1 fliers when it dies then that's a good deal. If you never get there, well, that's ok too. Don't feel as though you must grow it every turn and don't sweat it if your 2 drop doesn't win the game.
Helm of the Gods: I'll give the usual disclaimer that these kinds of cards are worthless in Cube and remind you that the other ratings reflect the card as it exists within the sphere dedicated Enchantment decks. It just makes absolutely no sense to rate it "in a vacuum." Ethereal Armor is an extremely powerful Magic card when you're jamming them on a Slippery Bogle/Gladecover Scout type threat (i.e. a cheap Hexproofer) and are then following it up with something like Daybreak Coronet. It kinda sucks that this card is an Artifact and given that it has a non-0 equip cost it's probably just worse than Ancestral Mask but the option is still there to play it if you want more cheap pump spells for your Bogle decks. I wouldn't expect those shells to play it over their current suite of Auras, especially versions of the deck with Daybreak Coronet, but it's possible that running 1-2 turns out to be correct. The other archetype that could play it would be the Enchantress style Prison decks who could, in theory, pair it with something like Mobilization to beat people down. I can't tell you why you'd ever elect to run that over Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience, Luminarch Ascension, Sigil of the Empty Throne or any other good win condition for that matter but it's an option I guess. Otherwise I couldn't even begin to imagine a single EDH deck that would play this thing either, the Voltron generals have access to vastly superior options, but maybe the Bant pillow-fort deck (think Stony Silence, Sterling GroveRest in Peace, Solitary Confinement, Ghostly Prion, Propaganda, Sphere of Safety, etc.) might play it for Commander damage kill potential. It's unlikely, I'd never add it to my own versions of the deck, but it's conceivable.
Constructed Grade D
EDH + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Jayemdae Tome: Not remotely playable in any format. If you've sleeving this up in EDH (I don't care if you're playing mono-White/Red) then you're doing it wrong. When you're paying 16 mana for a Jace's Ingenuity or 20 mana for an Opportunity there's just no possible way for you to be pulling ahead of a serious multiplayer group. You're just spinning your wheels and delaying the inevitable.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Mage-Ring Responder: This card it trash. Hell, it would still be trash even if it didn't cost 7 to untap. That my friends should tell you everything that you need to know about its playability lol. Myr Battlesphere or this? Wurmcoil Engine or this? Sundering Titan or this? Sylvan Primordial or this? Sepulchral Primordial or this? Angel of Serenity or this? Deadeye Navigator or this? Insurrection or this? Yeah, we're done here. This is a 7 drop that doesn't even come remotely close to winning the game in a world where plenty of alternatives can. The fact that it has to attack in order to extract any significant value is just sad.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Orbs of Warding: I can't remember the last time that I've seen Witchbane Orb played and a 5 mana version with a trivial upside probably isn't going to drastically alter that figure. Very few decks must target players in order to win games and MP isn't the time nor the place to whip out lists filled with burn and/or targeted discard. Unless you're trying to counter a specific subset of combo decks the effect isn't especially relevant in most games. I still plan on acquiring a copy of this card, you never know when you'll need it for EDH or Cube, but I wouldn't maindeck this effect unless I had a strong suspicion that I'd need it.
Global Grade D Not Cubeworthy
Prism Ring: Pure lifegain in all of its forms has never been especially competitive and I don't see why this card would break that mold. While I could easily envision games where it gains 10-15 life (if not more) that figure doesn't impress me because MP typically has nothing to do with racing, trading hits, burning players out, etc. When someone wins it's usually in a spectacular fashion and it's not uncommon to see 3 digits of damage dealt during the final turns of games. While 10-15 life may buffer you against Exsanguinate effects you're still fighting a losing battle at that point because "bad spells" are rarely effective answers to "good spells." You basically have to be doing something powerful/unfair yourself because otherwise you're just delaying the inevitable. I'm also ignoring all of the occasions where you don't draw this on turn 1, when it dies to mass removal, where people play combo decks, etc. so when you think about there's not much going for this thing. I can somewhat get behind Sun Droplet, I don't play it myself but I can see why others would, but this isn't on that level I don't think.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Pyromancer's Goggles: I'll echo what I said about Alhammaret's Archive in that this card is probably too slow for Constructed and too conditional for Cube which realistically only leaves EDH. While I like the idea of paying negative mana for a Reverberate effect what worries me about this card is how few Red spells actually benefit from doubling. Red deck typically play cards such as Vandalblast, Past in Flames, Ruination, Obliterate, Blasphemous Act and Insurrection that just plain don't benefit from being doubled. Now, it obviously also plays cards like Gamble, Comet Storm, Chaos Warp and Mana Geyser as well, I'm not suggesting otherwise, but my point is that a large % of its spells won't benefit from a Fork. Remember, a big reason why Reverberate and Wild Ricochet are employed is because they can target opposing spells so they're realistically never going to be dead. The Goggles, on the other hand, sometimes they do nothing. It's also worth nothing that whereas duel decks usually play a ton of spells like Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, again, you just won't see those in large numbers in a multiplayer sphere. All-in-all I have low expectations for this thing and I don't really expect it to make many waves. I jope to one day be proven wrong about it, I'd love for this kind of card to be actively good, I just don't see how that's probably when it figures to have no effect on a huge % of your spells.
EDH Rating D+
Constructed Rating D
Cube Rating F Not Cubeworthy
Sigil of Valor: Most people probably just glossed over this card but it's way closer to being playable than you probably think. Any piece of Equipment that's cheap to cast and Equip but that still has a potentially powerful effect is worth considering in your creature-based builds. I can almost guarantee you that if it didn't say "each other creature" that it would basically be a staple. I've played against Sublime Archangel enough to know just how powerful that effect is and while you lose the 4/3 flier you gain a ton of durability. Ultimately I don't think that this card makes the cut, that "lost" +1/+1 does break it for me, but this significantly closer to being a legitimate bomb than most of the crap that Wizards has churned out in these past few years.
Global Grade D- Not Cubeworthy
Sword of the Animist: This card reminds me of Mask of Memory in many ways. While it'll never rival uber equipment such as Skullclamp and/or Sword of Light and Shadow it's still powerful enough to provide a lot of value in a casual, multiplayer setting at a price point that average players can afford. I'm not entirely sure that that second part is true, I think that it might be pre-selling for like $6.00, but hopefully it'll crash and burn once it sees 0 play. Assuming that this thing becomes virtually free I do strongly encourage casual players to scoop some up to flesh out their lists. Much like Mask of Memory it's a fantastic way to squeeze some extra value from your critters since it's usually easy to find "open" players in large, Chaos games. Obviously Sword of the Animist doesn't even have to connect, just an attack is fine, but it's nice when you're not suiciding threats in the process of ramping. I'm glad the Equip cost is only 2 since it would have been unplayable otherwise but that's just low enough that you can equip, attack, and still cast a spell every turn (more or less).
For what it's worth I think that these cards are significantly more "fun" (I know how subjective that term is) in formats such as Cube than things like Sword of Body and Mind. This is just a small rant so feel free to skip ahead but I personally hate what Swords of X and Y do to multiplayer games. Far too often they'e 1-card kill conditions that slaughter players outright. The protections usually blank anything and everything that they could otherwise do to interact at which point they become a fish in a barrel. Seeing someone lose 15 minutes into a 2 hour EDH game is just disheartening and so I personally advocate against the use of Swords whenever possible. I also refuse to add them to my Cubes because I just don't like the play patterns that they create. The point here is that even though cards like Sword of the Animist and Loxodon Warhammer are objectively worse than things like Swords there is some merit to omitting them from your decks/Cubes.
Global Grade C- Cubeworthy
War Horn: Anything that says "attacking creatures" on it is probably unplayable and War Horn is no exception. Multiplayer Magic just isn't a format that revolves around curving out with lots of small dudes and turning them sideways. There's way more blocking, ramping, card drawing and overpowering your adversaries with unfair tactics.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Overall Grade: C Closing Thoughts: For better or for worse Alhammarret's Archive is going to see a lot of EDH play and even if I don't plan on abusing the card much myself it would be foolish of me to dismiss such an obvious casual staple. People just love doubling effects in general and a double double (where are we, Tim Horton's?) is twice as nice. Otherwise I really like Hangerback Walker as a cheap 2-drop in Artifact-based decks because other than Arcbound Ravager and Steel Overseer that slot is hurting. Also bear in mind that neither card is especially budget-friendly so let's not assume that everyone can afford to run either. While he's not my cup of tea I expect Chief of the Foundry to straddle next to Master of Etherium in said artifact decks because casual players just plain adore lords. Nothing else jumps off the page at me but Sword of the Animist is a tier above the other potential playables and I do expect to see it a fair amount in slower formats such as EDH. Finally, Helm of the Gods, Pyromancer's Goggles and even Orbs of Warding could all see some amount of play but I'm not much stock in any of them.
Land
Battlefield Forge et al.: As much as I dislike hating on dual lands that don't ETBT I cannot stand Painlands in a multiplayer setting. Games go long and life total matters a lot and you just plain can't afford to take 6+ extra damage from your spells in most instances. While these aren't quite as bad as Mana Confluence and the like it's still extremely difficult to make them work in my experience. If you have absolutely nothing better to run and can't afford to play with ETBT lands then do what you have to do but in general I strongly discourage investing in these kinds of lands for casual, multiplayer purposes.
Global Grade D Not Cubeworthy
Evolving Wilds: As much as we'd all love to crack a Polluted Delta for an Underground Sea on turn 1 every game the reality is that most Magic decks are built on relatively tight budgets. While Evolving Wilds will never be the best option for color fixing it's extremely cheap, trivial to acquire and does an adequate job of fixing your colors. Beyond that I'm not exactly sure how to grade these types of lands because they're significantly worse than the versions that are 72x more expensive but from a practical standpoint they're cheap and get the job done. If you owned real Fetchlands then you'd clearly never play with them but for your average Joe they're the glue that bring your lists together. Whether you want to call that a B, C, D, F, it doesn't really matter because you're not playing it because you want to. Rather, you field these kinds of cards because you have to and at that point it's just a matter of weighing the pros and cons between things like Evolving Wilds and other budget options such as Guildgates, Bouncelands, etc.
Global Grade D Cubeworthy
Foundry of the Consuls: I'm all for "spell lands" that still have value in the later stages of the game but a pair of 1/1 fliers isn't going to cut it in a competitive sphere. Even if your gamplan involves jamming Life from the Loam and/or Crucible of Worlds you're still not going to make much head-way. For a 1/1 flier to have relevance you'd need to be playing with Auras, Equipment and/or Bestow effects but even then this card is a far cry from amazing. I suppose that it's better than actual nothing if your 1-2 color deck has no need for basics (Vedalken Shackles et al.) but by no means is this a powerful card that you should be actively looking to play.
Global Grade D- Not Cubeworthy
Mage-Ring Network: A colorless version of Dreadship Reef isn't going to interest most people but the fact that it doesn't cost mana to activate is a decent bonus. Mono-colored decks probably won't care much about the color of the mana to begin with so any increase in quantity is probably a significant upgrade. Obviously you have have to tap it so you can't split the mana across multiple turns but that's a largely irrelevant drawback in my mind. Paying the 1 is significantly worse than the tap requirement. Anyways, I think that these kinds of Storage Lands are underplayed for their cost. While they may not be able to compete with the likes of Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Cloudpost, Cabal Coffers, etc. they're basically free to purchase and they can still enable you to cast stupidly expensive spells pas ta certain point. I personally feel that if you're not fielding some amount of "Insurrection" type spells that you're just plain doing it wrong. Turning fair creatures sideways and casting removal spells can only take you so far so you really should be looking to support the most unfair gameplans imaginable. Anyways, Storage Lands are sweet because 1-2 of them ramp-up quickly and before long they allow you to jam things like Debt to the Deathless for millions. Given that they don't ETBT to begin with they don't exactly slow you down and you only have to store mana when you don't have anything else to do with your mana. Since the payoff is the ability to cast an extremely unfair spell/sequence of spells I see very little reason to omit these kinds of lands from your 1-2 color builds assuming that you don't have access to superior alternatives.
Global Grade C Not Cubeworthy
Rogue's Passage: This is one the cards that I completely overlooked when it was first printed. Paying 5 mana for a "marginal" effect didn't interest me at the time but since then I've come to appreciate just how powerful it actually is. From Wight of Precinct Six to Hydra Omnivore Black and Green can field a ton of extremely large creatures that struggle to actually connect with people but when they do, watch out, because they don't mess around. While this card has basically no value in the early stages of the game it's still a land that doesn't ETBT so unless you're playing with 3+ colors and have strict requirements it doesn't cost much to run it. Where the card shines is in the later stages of the game where board stalls and chump blockers become a serious problem. The ability to connect with the aforementioned "Lord of Extinction" type threats is a huge game and Commander damage is a very real win condition in EDH. Even if you look outside of Black and Green the others still have some large beaters at their disposal (think Taurean Mauler) and Equipment is still a thing. You usually don't need many hits from a Strata Scythe/Bonehoard to take someone down so anything that can force them through is a worthwhile effect.
Constructed + EDH Grade B
Cube Grade D Not Cubeworthy
Overall Grade: D- Closing Thoughts: Nothing to see here folks. Painslands suck, Rogue's Passage/Evolving Wilds were never expensive nor difficult to acquire, Foundry of the Consuls is too weak to see serious play and Mage-Ring Network only works in a very small subset of 1-2 color decks as a budget alternative. Cue the "whan whan" foghorn sound effect.
BAM!
Go into your lands section just above Mage-Ring Network your Not Cubeworthy ends incorrectly on your bold. Its currently a card end and not a bold end which is throwing everything off. Whenever I have a problem like this I go to the test forums and I start subdividing and cutting half of the text out. If the tags are still funky then the error is in the half still there otherwise its in the half you cut out. It takes a while to narrow this way but the alternative is absolutely terrible.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I'm polishing off my multiplayer set review but for some reason I'm getting some bizarre formatting bug that I can't seem to fix. My bolded words are all messed-up and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it :/. Can anyone help me out?
Multicolor
Blazing Hellhound: Good sac outlets tend to be cheap, free to activate and typically have worthwhile effects. This is none of those things.
Global Grade D- Not Cubeworthy
Blood-Cursed Knight: A 3/2 for 3 is obviously unplayable and the prospect of a big lifelinker isn't enough to convince me that this is a solid Magic card. Even if it were simply a 4/3 lifelinker for 3 that's still basically only going to see play in Constructed assuming that your meta was on the aggressive side of the spectrum and that you needed early blockers. Given that some % of the time this card is just worthless I can't say that I recommend acquiring them.
Constructed Grade D-
EDH + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Citadel Castellan: A vigilant 4/5 for 3 is still basically just a Leatherback Baloth which isn't a card that you generally want to field in a MP setting. Medium-sized beaters can only take you so far because turning them sideways is probably the worst possibly way to go about winning. Vigilance obviously helps since your attacks become "free" but that's still an extremely fair gameplan that probably won't cut it in most settings.
Constructed Grade D-
EDH + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Possessed Skaab: The fact that it's a Snapcaster Mage of sorts makes me think that there's a home for this in EDH. Every Thraximundar deck that I've ever faced has played Rooftop Storm and so if you're aggressively tutoring for it anyways then this card could potentially make its way into the 99. This obviously also applies to Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and other Zombie EDH decks as well but the most competitive list is probably Anthrax himself which is why I used him as the primary example. The card seems mostly unplayable otherwise though.
EDH Grade D
Constructed + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Reclusive Artificer: A 2/3 Haste for 4? Right... Either way this card is actually decent in the right shell, namely one that fields things like Darksteel Citadel, Seat of the Synod, Great Furnace, Mox Opal, Thoughtcast, etc. At some point she becomes a Flametongue Kavu which is a decent playable in most settings. She's obviously complete garbage in formats such as Cube and even in EDH I wouldn't feel comfortable sleeving her up. Not only is she low impact but you'll struggle to get value from the 2/3 body and it'll be tough to guarantee kills with her nuke. I still think that she has a shot in Constructed though because it's just so easy to play a deck that's comprised almost entire of artifacts and she definitely holds her own in those kinds of scenarios.
Constructed Grade D+
EDH + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Thunderclap Wyvern: Lords are usually worthless in Cube but otherwise people can't seem to get enough of them. The stats on this thing aren't impressing by any means by anyone playing a UW/x "fliers" deck is still probably going to want some. If you're curving Pride of the Clouds into Warden of Evos Isle into Radiant, Archangel I just have to imagine that you'll be in the market for this as well. This is one of those things where true playability doesn't matter insofar as it promotes synergy and enables people to dream big. I don't personally care for it but at the same time I know that it will make a lot of casual players happy and that in turn makes me happy.
Constructed + EDH Grade D
Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Overall Grade: D- Closing Thought: Nothing stands out to me as a powerful playable that you should make a concerted effort to acquire. I could easily live without all of these.
Artifact
Alchemist's Vial: Anytime you see a cheap artifact that says "draw a card" on it think of Second Sunrise, Faith's Reward and Open the Vaults. By combining the two it becomes ridiculously easy to draw your entire deck, generate arbitrarily large sums of mana (think Krark-Clan Ironworks) and kill people with just about anything under the sun. The end goal is usually to draw your deck, enter an infinite combo where you sacrifice Pyrite Spellbomb to deal 2 damage, recur it with one of your White spells, put it on the bottom of your library and redraw it with Conjurer's Bauble. While I couldn't imagine playing this card in any other archetype (and even then it's probably not optimal) it's worth keeping all that in mind.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Alhammarret's Archive: I'm going to start by saying that these kinds of cards are terrible in Cube (too slow and inconsistent) and they're virtually always going to be too clunky for Constructed. Remember, we're not talking about a Staff of Nin-esque draw engine that naturally rips an additional card per turn. Your 5 mana investment inherently returns nothing. Even if you then cast a draw spell, say Jace's Ingenuity, you've still paid 5 Sorcery-speed mana to draw 3 cards on a later turn. That's terrible. Realistically you have to cast at least 2-3 decent draw spells before you'll see a return on this type of investment. Doubling lifegain is "fine" too obviously but Boon Reflection never has and never will a strong playable in any format so think of that as a bonus and not the primary benefit (unless you're playing a dedicated lifegain deck obviously). Anyways, this is the reason why you don't see cards like Doubling Cube and Mirari's Wake very frequently in Constructed. They're slow, mana intensive and require that you draw and play other powerful spells prior to sticking them. By the time you start being paid dividends the game can already be over.
Moving on I'd like to address to subject of EDH. While there are plenty of different ways to analyze this card in the format I want to stress that it's still a 5 mana spell that "doesn't do anything." As such the best versions of the best decks probably won't play it. In fact, I can almost guarantee you that the absolutely most competitive version of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic wouldn't even touch it. Ultra competitive EDH is a turn 4 format and even tier 1.5 decks are still winning games on turns 5-6 with reasonable consistency so this is by no means some insane bomb that will revolutionize the format. I'm not saying that it's unplayable, I'm just reminding everyone that "good in EDH" means different things to different people so don't be surprised when you see a card like this that has a ton of lovers and haters. The fact of the matter is that it'll be a bomb in some circles and a complete dud in others.
With that out of the way I want to stress that I do still love this card for EDH. While there's a very small subset of people who play Magic at an ultra-competitive level it represents but a tiny fraction of the total MTG population. The vast majority of Magic players sling it casually on kitchen tables and not in LGSes or venues competing for points. While the best versions of the best decks won't field this thing it's perfect for the overwhelming majority who just want to play big silly cards with over-the-top effects. This doesn't mean that you should play with bad cards like Alhammarret, High Arbiter but you should feel free to go nuts with extremely fun and powerful build-around-mes. Hammy's Archive is a powerful card in the context of a fair, grindy, 10+ turn game of Magic in which you draw cards and gain life on a consistent basis. Moreover, these kinds of cards also lead to fun and exciting stories which are usually more important than the results of the match. Curving one of these into a Sphinx's Revelation is just plain fun and win or lose it's something that you're going to remember. That's why these kinds of cards are so important to the health of the game: they get people excited and coming back for more.
EDH Grade B
Constructed Grade C
Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Chief of the Foundry: It's no Master of Etherium but I have to imagine that people playing decks with Steel Overseer and Cranial Plating are probably going to want this guy. While I wouldn't label him as "competitive" I have a healthy amount of respect for cards that make casual players happy and any Lord qualifies in that department. People love playing with them no matter how good/bad they actually are because the effect feels relatively unique, powerful and fun to experiment with. Just don't go jamming this thing into your Cubes because he's not going to accomplish much of anything.
Constructed + EDH Grade D
Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Hangarback Walker: Now this is what I'm looking for in a scaling threat. I want to start by saying that this is a 2 drop and that you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that this card is a bomb that scales well into the lategame. Paying 10 mana for a vanilla 5/5 that does something when it dies isn't much of payoff. Rather, this card is at its best when it's jammed on turn 2 or 3 (turn 3 following a turn 2 mana rock is sweet) at which point you can grow it whenever you have spare mana and not have to worry about what happens to it. Obviously if you have nothing better to do with your mana just run it out for as much as you can but I don't see any reason to sandbag it in the hopes of a "big payday" down the road. By jamming it early on it doesn't matter how big it gets nor when it dies because at that point it's a low risk investment with a potentially high reward. If you pay 6 mana total for a 5/5 that produces 5 1/1 fliers when it dies then that's a good deal. If you never get there, well, that's ok too. Don't feel as though you must grow it every turn and don't sweat it if your 2 drop doesn't win the game.
Helm of the Gods: I'll give the usual disclaimer that these kinds of cards are worthless in Cube and remind you that the other ratings reflect the card as it exists within the sphere dedicated Enchantment decks. It just makes absolutely no sense to rate it "in a vacuum." Ethereal Armor is an extremely powerful Magic card when you're jamming them on a Slippery Bogle/Gladecover Scout type threat (i.e. a cheap Hexproofer) and are then following it up with something like Daybreak Coronet. It kinda sucks that this card is an Artifact and given that it has a non-0 equip cost it's probably just worse than Ancestral Mask but the option is still there to play it if you want more cheap pump spells for your Bogle decks. I wouldn't expect those shells to play it over their current suite of Auras, especially versions of the deck with Daybreak Coronet, but it's possible that running 1-2 turns out to be correct. The other archetype that could play it would be the Enchantress style Prison decks who could, in theory, pair it with something like Mobilization to beat people down. I can't tell you why you'd ever elect to run that over Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience, Luminarch Ascension, Sigil of the Empty Throne or any other good win condition for that matter but it's an option I guess. Otherwise I couldn't even begin to imagine a single EDH deck that would play this thing either, the Voltron generals have access to vastly superior options, but maybe the Bant pillow-fort deck (think Stony Silence, Sterling GroveRest in Peace, Solitary Confinement, Ghostly Prion, Propaganda, Sphere of Safety, etc.) might play it for Commander damage kill potential. It's unlikely, I'd never add it to my own versions of the deck, but it's conceivable.
Constructed Grade D
EDH + Cube Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Jayemdae Tome: Not remotely playable in any format. If you've sleeving this up in EDH (I don't care if you're playing mono-White/Red) then you're doing it wrong. When you're paying 16 mana for a Jace's Ingenuity or 20 mana for an Opportunity there's just no possible way for you to be pulling ahead of a serious multiplayer group. You're just spinning your wheels and delaying the inevitable.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Mage-Ring Responder: This card it trash. Hell, it would still be trash even if it didn't cost 7 to untap. That my friends should tell you everything that you need to know about its playability lol. Myr Battlesphere or this? Wurmcoil Engine or this? Sundering Titan or this? Sylvan Primordial or this? Sepulchral Primordial or this? Angel of Serenity or this? Deadeye Navigator or this? Insurrection or this? Yeah, we're done here. This is a 7 drop that doesn't even come remotely close to winning the game in a world where plenty of alternatives can. The fact that it has to attack in order to extract any significant value is just sad.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Orbs of Warding: I can't remember the last time that I've seen Witchbane Orb played and a 5 mana version with a trivial upside probably isn't going to drastically alter that figure. Very few decks must target players in order to win games and MP isn't the time nor the place to whip out lists filled with burn and/or targeted discard. Unless you're trying to counter a specific subset of combo decks the effect isn't especially relevant in most games. I still plan on acquiring a copy of this card, you never know when you'll need it for EDH or Cube, but I wouldn't maindeck this effect unless I had a strong suspicion that I'd need it.
Global Grade D Not Cubeworthy
Prism Ring: Pure lifegain in all of its forms has never been especially competitive and I don't see why this card would break that mold. While I could easily envision games where it gains 10-15 life (if not more) that figure doesn't impress me because MP typically has nothing to do with racing, trading hits, burning players out, etc. When someone wins it's usually in a spectacular fashion and it's not uncommon to see 3 digits of damage dealt during the final turns of games. While 10-15 life may buffer you against Exsanguinate effects you're still fighting a losing battle at that point because "bad spells" are rarely effective answers to "good spells." You basically have to be doing something powerful/unfair yourself because otherwise you're just delaying the inevitable. I'm also ignoring all of the occasions where you don't draw this on turn 1, when it dies to mass removal, where people play combo decks, etc. so when you think about there's not much going for this thing. I can somewhat get behind Sun Droplet, I don't play it myself but I can see why others would, but this isn't on that level I don't think.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Pyromancer's Goggles: I'll echo what I said about Alhammaret's Archive in that this card is probably too slow for Constructed and too conditional for Cube which realistically only leaves EDH. While I like the idea of paying negative mana for a Reverberate effect what worries me about this card is how few Red spells actually benefit from doubling. Red deck typically play cards such as Vandalblast, Past in Flames, Ruination, Obliterate, Blasphemous Act and Insurrection that just plain don't benefit from being doubled. Now, it obviously also plays cards like Gamble, Comet Storm, Chaos Warp and Mana Geyser as well, I'm not suggesting otherwise, but my point is that a large % of its spells won't benefit from a Fork. Remember, a big reason why Reverberate and Wild Ricochet are employed is because they can target opposing spells so they're realistically never going to be dead. The Goggles, on the other hand, sometimes they do nothing. It's also worth nothing that whereas duel decks usually play a ton of spells like Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, again, you just won't see those in large numbers in a multiplayer sphere. All-in-all I have low expectations for this thing and I don't really expect it to make many waves. I jope to one day be proven wrong about it, I'd love for this kind of card to be actively good, I just don't see how that's probably when it figures to have no effect on a huge % of your spells.
EDH Rating D+
Constructed Rating D
Cube Rating F Not Cubeworthy
Sigil of Valor: Most people probably just glossed over this card but it's way closer to being playable than you probably think. Any piece of Equipment that's cheap to cast and Equip but that still has a potentially powerful effect is worth considering in your creature-based builds. I can almost guarantee you that if it didn't say "each other creature" that it would basically be a staple. I've played against Sublime Archangel enough to know just how powerful that effect is and while you lose the 4/3 flier you gain a ton of durability. Ultimately I don't think that this card makes the cut, that "lost" +1/+1 does break it for me, but this significantly closer to being a legitimate bomb than most of the crap that Wizards has churned out in these past few years.
Global Grade D- Not Cubeworthy
Sword of the Animist: This card reminds me of Mask of Memory in many ways. While it'll never rival uber equipment such as Skullclamp and/or Sword of Light and Shadow it's still powerful enough to provide a lot of value in a casual, multiplayer setting at a price point that average players can afford. I'm not entirely sure that that second part is true, I think that it might be pre-selling for like $6.00, but hopefully it'll crash and burn once it sees 0 play. Assuming that this thing becomes virtually free I do strongly encourage casual players to scoop some up to flesh out their lists. Much like Mask of Memory it's a fantastic way to squeeze some extra value from your critters since it's usually easy to find "open" players in large, Chaos games. Obviously Sword of the Animist doesn't even have to connect, just an attack is fine, but it's nice when you're not suiciding threats in the process of ramping. I'm glad the Equip cost is only 2 since it would have been unplayable otherwise but that's just low enough that you can equip, attack, and still cast a spell every turn (more or less).
For what it's worth I think that these cards are significantly more "fun" (I know how subjective that term is) in formats such as Cube than things like Sword of Body and Mind. This is just a small rant so feel free to skip ahead but I personally hate what Swords of X and Y do to multiplayer games. Far too often they'e 1-card kill conditions that slaughter players outright. The protections usually blank anything and everything that they could otherwise do to interact at which point they become a fish in a barrel. Seeing someone lose 15 minutes into a 2 hour EDH game is just disheartening and so I personally advocate against the use of Swords whenever possible. I also refuse to add them to my Cubes because I just don't like the play patterns that they create. The point here is that even though cards like Sword of the Animist and Loxodon Warhammer are objectively worse than things like Swords there is some merit to omitting them from your decks/Cubes.
Global Grade C- Cubeworthy
War Horn: Anything that says "attacking creatures" on it is probably unplayable and War Horn is no exception. Multiplayer Magic just isn't a format that revolves around curving out with lots of small dudes and turning them sideways. There's way more blocking, ramping, card drawing and overpowering your adversaries with unfair tactics.
Global Grade F Not Cubeworthy
Overall Grade: C Closing Thoughts: For better or for worse Alhammarret's Archive is going to see a lot of EDH play and even if I don't plan on abusing the card much myself it would be foolish of me to dismiss such an obvious casual staple. People just love doubling effects in general and a double double (where are we, Tim Horton's?) is twice as nice. Otherwise I really like Hangerback Walker as a cheap 2-drop in Artifact-based decks because other than Arcbound Ravager and Steel Overseer that slot is hurting. Also bear in mind that neither card is especially budget-friendly so let's not assume that everyone can afford to run either. While he's not my cup of tea I expect Chief of the Foundry to straddle next to Master of Etherium in said artifact decks because casual players just plain adore lords. Nothing else jumps off the page at me but Sword of the Animist is a tier above the other potential playables and I do expect to see it a fair amount in slower formats such as EDH. Finally, Helm of the Gods, Pyromancer's Goggles and even Orbs of Warding could all see some amount of play but I'm not much stock in any of them.
Land
Battlefield Forge et al.: As much as I dislike hating on dual lands that don't ETBT I cannot stand Painlands in a multiplayer setting. Games go long and life total matters a lot and you just plain can't afford to take 6+ extra damage from your spells in most instances. While these aren't quite as bad as Mana Confluence and the like it's still extremely difficult to make them work in my experience. If you have absolutely nothing better to run and can't afford to play with ETBT lands then do what you have to do but in general I strongly discourage investing in these kinds of lands for casual, multiplayer purposes.
Global Grade D Not Cubeworthy
Evolving Wilds: As much as we'd all love to crack a Polluted Delta for an Underground Sea on turn 1 every game the reality is that most Magic decks are built on relatively tight budgets. While Evolving Wilds will never be the best option for color fixing it's extremely cheap, trivial to acquire and does an adequate job of fixing your colors. Beyond that I'm not exactly sure how to grade these types of lands because they're significantly worse than the versions that are 72x more expensive but from a practical standpoint they're cheap and get the job done. If you owned real Fetchlands then you'd clearly never play with them but for your average Joe they're the glue that bring your lists together. Whether you want to call that a B, C, D, F, it doesn't really matter because you're not playing it because you want to. Rather, you field these kinds of cards because you have to and at that point it's just a matter of weighing the pros and cons between things like Evolving Wilds and other budget options such as Guildgates, Bouncelands, etc.
Global Grade D Cubeworthy
Foundry of the Consuls: I'm all for "spell lands" that still have value in the later stages of the game but a pair of 1/1 fliers isn't going to cut it in a competitive sphere. Even if your gamplan involves jamming Life from the Loam and/or Crucible of Worlds you're still not going to make much head-way. For a 1/1 flier to have relevance you'd need to be playing with Auras, Equipment and/or Bestow effects but even then this card is a far cry from amazing. I suppose that it's better than actual nothing if your 1-2 color deck has no need for basics (Vedalken Shackles et al.) but by no means is this a powerful card that you should be actively looking to play.
Global Grade D- Not Cubeworthy
Mage-Ring Network: A colorless version of Dreadship Reef isn't going to interest most people but the fact that it doesn't cost mana to activate is a decent bonus. Mono-colored decks probably won't care much about the color of the mana to begin with so any increase in quantity is probably a significant upgrade. Obviously you have have to tap it so you can't split the mana across multiple turns but that's a largely irrelevant drawback in my mind. Paying the 1 is significantly worse than the tap requirement. Anyways, I think that these kinds of Storage Lands are underplayed for their cost. While they may not be able to compete with the likes of Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Cloudpost, Cabal Coffers, etc. they're basically free to purchase and they can still enable you to cast stupidly expensive spells pas ta certain point. I personally feel that if you're not fielding some amount of "Insurrection" type spells that you're just plain doing it wrong. Turning fair creatures sideways and casting removal spells can only take you so far so you really should be looking to support the most unfair gameplans imaginable. Anyways, Storage Lands are sweet because 1-2 of them ramp-up quickly and before long they allow you to jam things like Debt to the Deathless for millions. Given that they don't ETBT to begin with they don't exactly slow you down and you only have to store mana when you don't have anything else to do with your mana. Since the payoff is the ability to cast an extremely unfair spell/sequence of spells I see very little reason to omit these kinds of lands from your 1-2 color builds assuming that you don't have access to superior alternatives.
Global Grade C Not Cubeworthy
Rogue's Passage: This is one the cards that I completely overlooked when it was first printed. Paying 5 mana for a "marginal" effect didn't interest me at the time but since then I've come to appreciate just how powerful it actually is. From Wight of Precinct Six to Hydra Omnivore Black and Green can field a ton of extremely large creatures that struggle to actually connect with people but when they do, watch out, because they don't mess around. While this card has basically no value in the early stages of the game it's still a land that doesn't ETBT so unless you're playing with 3+ colors and have strict requirements it doesn't cost much to run it. Where the card shines is in the later stages of the game where board stalls and chump blockers become a serious problem. The ability to connect with the aforementioned "Lord of Extinction" type threats is a huge game and Commander damage is a very real win condition in EDH. Even if you look outside of Black and Green the others still have some large beaters at their disposal (think Taurean Mauler) and Equipment is still a thing. You usually don't need many hits from a Strata Scythe/Bonehoard to take someone down so anything that can force them through is a worthwhile effect.
Constructed + EDH Grade B
Cube Grade D Not Cubeworthy
Overall Grade: D- Closing Thoughts: Nothing to see here folks. Painslands suck, Rogue's Passage/Evolving Wilds were never expensive nor difficult to acquire, Foundry of the Consuls is too weak to see serious play and Mage-Ring Network only works in a very small subset of 1-2 color decks as a budget alternative. Cue the "whan whan" foghorn sound effect.
BAM!
Go into your lands section just above Mage-Ring Network your Not Cubeworthy ends incorrectly on your bold. Its currently a card end and not a bold end which is throwing everything off. Whenever I have a problem like this I go to the test forums and I start subdividing and cutting half of the text out. If the tags are still funky then the error is in the half still there otherwise its in the half you cut out. It takes a while to narrow this way but the alternative is absolutely terrible.
Thank you so much, you're my hero! I swear that I tried to look through them all but I guess I just missed it :<. Of course it was down in the lands section; I was probably zoned-out by the time that I got that far :/.
[b]Multicolor[/b]
Blazing Hellhound: Good sac outlets tend to be cheap, free to activate and typically have worthwhile effects. This is none of those things.
Global Grade [b]D-[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Blood-Cursed Knight: A 3/2 for 3 is obviously unplayable and the prospect of a big lifelinker isn't enough to convince me that this is a solid Magic card. Even if it were simply a 4/3 lifelinker for 3 that's still basically only going to see play in Constructed assuming that your meta was on the aggressive side of the spectrum and that you needed early blockers. Given that some % of the time this card is just worthless I can't say that I recommend acquiring them.
Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b]
EDH + Cube Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Citadel Castellan: A vigilant 4/5 for 3 is still basically just a Leatherback Baloth which isn't a card that you generally want to field in a MP setting. Medium-sized beaters can only take you so far because turning them sideways is probably the worst possibly way to go about winning. Vigilance obviously helps since your attacks become "free" but that's still an extremely fair gameplan that probably won't cut it in most settings.
Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b]
EDH + Cube Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Possessed Skaab: The fact that it's a Snapcaster Mage of sorts makes me think that there's a home for this in EDH. Every Thraximundar deck that I've ever faced has played Rooftop Storm and so if you're aggressively tutoring for it anyways then this card could potentially make its way into the 99. This obviously also applies to Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and other Zombie EDH decks as well but the most competitive list is probably Anthrax himself which is why I used him as the primary example. The card seems mostly unplayable otherwise though.
EDH Grade [b]D[/b]
Constructed + Cube Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Reclusive Artificer: A 2/3 Haste for 4? Right... Either way this card is actually decent in the right shell, namely one that fields things like Darksteel Citadel, Seat of the Synod, Great Furnace, Mox Opal, Thoughtcast, etc. At some point she becomes a Flametongue Kavu which is a decent playable in most settings. She's obviously complete garbage in formats such as Cube and even in EDH I wouldn't feel comfortable sleeving her up. Not only is she low impact but you'll struggle to get value from the 2/3 body and it'll be tough to guarantee kills with her nuke. I still think that she has a shot in Constructed though because it's just so easy to play a deck that's comprised almost entire of artifacts and she definitely holds her own in those kinds of scenarios.
Constructed Grade [b]D+[/b]
EDH + Cube Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Thunderclap Wyvern: Lords are usually worthless in Cube but otherwise people can't seem to get enough of them. The stats on this thing aren't impressing by any means by anyone playing a UW/x "fliers" deck is still probably going to want some. If you're curving Pride of the Clouds into Warden of Evos Isle into Radiant, Archangel I just have to imagine that you'll be in the market for this as well. This is one of those things where true playability doesn't matter insofar as it promotes synergy and enables people to dream big. I don't personally care for it but at the same time I know that it will make a lot of casual players happy and that in turn makes me happy.
Constructed + EDH Grade [b]D[/b]
Cube Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
[b]Overall Grade: D-[/b]
[b]Closing Thought:[/b] Nothing stands out to me as a powerful playable that you should make a concerted effort to acquire. I could easily live without all of these.
[b]Artifact[/b]
Alchemist's Vial: Anytime you see a cheap artifact that says "draw a card" on it think of Second Sunrise, Faith's Reward and Open the Vaults. By combining the two it becomes ridiculously easy to draw your entire deck, generate arbitrarily large sums of mana (think Krark-Clan Ironworks) and kill people with just about anything under the sun. The end goal is usually to draw your deck, enter an infinite combo where you sacrifice Pyrite Spellbomb to deal 2 damage, recur it with one of your White spells, put it on the bottom of your library and redraw it with Conjurer's Bauble. While I couldn't imagine playing this card in any other archetype (and even then it's probably not optimal) it's worth keeping all that in mind.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Alhammarret's Archive: I'm going to start by saying that these kinds of cards are terrible in Cube (too slow and inconsistent) and they're virtually always going to be too clunky for Constructed. Remember, we're not talking about a Staff of Nin-esque draw engine that naturally rips an additional card per turn. Your 5 mana investment inherently returns nothing. Even if you then cast a draw spell, say Jace's Ingenuity, you've still paid 5 Sorcery-speed mana to draw 3 cards on a later turn. That's terrible. Realistically you have to cast at least 2-3 decent draw spells before you'll see a return on this type of investment. Doubling lifegain is "fine" too obviously but Boon Reflection never has and never will a strong playable in any format so think of that as a bonus and not the primary benefit (unless you're playing a dedicated lifegain deck obviously). Anyways, this is the reason why you don't see cards like Doubling Cube and Mirari's Wake very frequently in Constructed. They're slow, mana intensive and require that you draw and play other powerful spells prior to sticking them. By the time you start being paid dividends the game can already be over.
Moving on I'd like to address to subject of EDH. While there are plenty of different ways to analyze this card in the format I want to stress that it's still a 5 mana spell that "doesn't do anything." As such the best versions of the best decks probably won't play it. In fact, I can almost guarantee you that the absolutely most competitive version of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic wouldn't even touch it. Ultra competitive EDH is a turn 4 format and even tier 1.5 decks are still winning games on turns 5-6 with reasonable consistency so this is by no means some insane bomb that will revolutionize the format. I'm not saying that it's unplayable, I'm just reminding everyone that "good in EDH" means different things to different people so don't be surprised when you see a card like this that has a ton of lovers and haters. The fact of the matter is that it'll be a bomb in some circles and a complete dud in others.
With that out of the way I want to stress that I do still love this card for EDH. While there's a very small subset of people who play Magic at an ultra-competitive level it represents but a tiny fraction of the total MTG population. The vast majority of Magic players sling it casually on kitchen tables and not in LGSes or venues competing for points. While the best versions of the best decks won't field this thing it's perfect for the overwhelming majority who just want to play big silly cards with over-the-top effects. This doesn't mean that you should play with bad cards like Alhammarret, High Arbiter but you should feel free to go nuts with extremely fun and powerful build-around-mes. Hammy's Archive is a powerful card in the context of a fair, grindy, 10+ turn game of Magic in which you draw cards and gain life on a consistent basis. Moreover, these kinds of cards also lead to fun and exciting stories which are usually more important than the results of the match. Curving one of these into a Sphinx's Revelation is just plain fun and win or lose it's something that you're going to remember. That's why these kinds of cards are so important to the health of the game: they get people excited and coming back for more.
EDH Grade [b]B[/b]
Constructed Grade [b]C[/b]
Cube Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Chief of the Foundry: It's no Master of Etherium but I have to imagine that people playing decks with Steel Overseer and Cranial Plating are probably going to want this guy. While I wouldn't label him as "competitive" I have a healthy amount of respect for cards that make casual players happy and any Lord qualifies in that department. People love playing with them no matter how good/bad they actually are because the effect feels relatively unique, powerful and fun to experiment with. Just don't go jamming this thing into your Cubes because he's not going to accomplish much of anything.
Constructed + EDH Grade [b]D[/b]
Cube Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Hangarback Walker: Now this is what I'm looking for in a scaling threat. I want to start by saying that this is a 2 drop and that you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that this card is a bomb that scales well into the lategame. Paying 10 mana for a vanilla 5/5 that does something when it dies isn't much of payoff. Rather, this card is at its best when it's jammed on turn 2 or 3 (turn 3 following a turn 2 mana rock is sweet) at which point you can grow it whenever you have spare mana and not have to worry about what happens to it. Obviously if you have nothing better to do with your mana just run it out for as much as you can but I don't see any reason to sandbag it in the hopes of a "big payday" down the road. By jamming it early on it doesn't matter how big it gets nor when it dies because at that point it's a low risk investment with a potentially high reward. If you pay 6 mana total for a 5/5 that produces 5 1/1 fliers when it dies then that's a good deal. If you never get there, well, that's ok too. Don't feel as though you must grow it every turn and don't sweat it if your 2 drop doesn't win the game.
Beyond that the fact that this card has a CMC of 0 is a big game. Trinket Mage, Artificer's Intuition, Auriok Salvagers and more all reward you for having relevant 0 CMC cards in your lists. Moreover, it works extremely well with cards like Hardened Scales, Coretapper, Kalonian Hydra, Doubling Season, Contagion Engine, on and on and on. Even plain old Steel Overseer is happy to see these kinds of critters and Skullclamp and Cranial Plating can effectively conscript armies of 1/1 Thopters. Tempered Steel can also get down and dirty once it pops so there's just a ton of reasons to slot this thing in your brews.
Global Grade [b]C[/b]
[b]Cubeworthy[/b]
Helm of the Gods: I'll give the usual disclaimer that these kinds of cards are worthless in Cube and remind you that the other ratings reflect the card as it exists within the sphere dedicated Enchantment decks. It just makes absolutely no sense to rate it "in a vacuum." Ethereal Armor is an extremely powerful Magic card when you're jamming them on a Slippery Bogle/Gladecover Scout type threat (i.e. a cheap Hexproofer) and are then following it up with something like Daybreak Coronet. It kinda sucks that this card is an Artifact and given that it has a non-0 equip cost it's probably just worse than Ancestral Mask but the option is still there to play it if you want more cheap pump spells for your Bogle decks. I wouldn't expect those shells to play it over their current suite of Auras, especially versions of the deck with Daybreak Coronet, but it's possible that running 1-2 turns out to be correct. The other archetype that could play it would be the Enchantress style Prison decks who could, in theory, pair it with something like Mobilization to beat people down. I can't tell you why you'd ever elect to run that over Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience, Luminarch Ascension, Sigil of the Empty Throne or any other good win condition for that matter but it's an option I guess. Otherwise I couldn't even begin to imagine a single EDH deck that would play this thing either, the Voltron generals have access to vastly superior options, but maybe the Bant pillow-fort deck (think Stony Silence, Sterling Grove Rest in Peace, Solitary Confinement, Ghostly Prion, Propaganda, Sphere of Safety, etc.) might play it for Commander damage kill potential. It's unlikely, I'd never add it to my own versions of the deck, but it's conceivable.
Constructed Grade [b]D[/b]
EDH + Cube Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Jayemdae Tome: Not remotely playable in any format. If you've sleeving this up in EDH (I don't care if you're playing mono-White/Red) then you're doing it wrong. When you're paying 16 mana for a Jace's Ingenuity or 20 mana for an Opportunity there's just no possible way for you to be pulling ahead of a serious multiplayer group. You're just spinning your wheels and delaying the inevitable.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Mage-Ring Responder: This card it trash. Hell, it would still be trash even if it didn't cost 7 to untap. That my friends should tell you everything that you need to know about its playability lol. Myr Battlesphere or this? Wurmcoil Engine or this? Sundering Titan or this? Sylvan Primordial or this? Sepulchral Primordial or this? Angel of Serenity or this? Deadeye Navigator or this? Insurrection or this? Yeah, we're done here. This is a 7 drop that doesn't even come remotely close to winning the game in a world where plenty of alternatives can. The fact that it has to attack in order to extract any significant value is just sad.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Orbs of Warding: I can't remember the last time that I've seen Witchbane Orb played and a 5 mana version with a trivial upside probably isn't going to drastically alter that figure. Very few decks must target players in order to win games and MP isn't the time nor the place to whip out lists filled with burn and/or targeted discard. Unless you're trying to counter a specific subset of combo decks the effect isn't especially relevant in most games. I still plan on acquiring a copy of this card, you never know when you'll need it for EDH or Cube, but I wouldn't maindeck this effect unless I had a strong suspicion that I'd need it.
Global Grade [b]D[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Prism Ring: Pure lifegain in all of its forms has never been especially competitive and I don't see why this card would break that mold. While I could easily envision games where it gains 10-15 life (if not more) that figure doesn't impress me because MP typically has nothing to do with racing, trading hits, burning players out, etc. When someone wins it's usually in a spectacular fashion and it's not uncommon to see 3 digits of damage dealt during the final turns of games. While 10-15 life may buffer you against Exsanguinate effects you're still fighting a losing battle at that point because "bad spells" are rarely effective answers to "good spells." You basically have to be doing something powerful/unfair yourself because otherwise you're just delaying the inevitable. I'm also ignoring all of the occasions where you don't draw this on turn 1, when it dies to mass removal, where people play combo decks, etc. so when you think about there's not much going for this thing. I can somewhat get behind Sun Droplet, I don't play it myself but I can see why others would, but this isn't on that level I don't think.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Pyromancer's Goggles: I'll echo what I said about Alhammaret's Archive in that this card is probably too slow for Constructed and too conditional for Cube which realistically only leaves EDH. While I like the idea of paying negative mana for a Reverberate effect what worries me about this card is how few Red spells actually benefit from doubling. Red deck typically play cards such as Vandalblast, Past in Flames, Ruination, Obliterate, Blasphemous Act and Insurrection that just plain don't benefit from being doubled. Now, it obviously also plays cards like Gamble, Comet Storm, Chaos Warp and Mana Geyser as well, I'm not suggesting otherwise, but my point is that a large % of its spells won't benefit from a Fork. Remember, a big reason why Reverberate and Wild Ricochet are employed is because they can target opposing spells so they're realistically never going to be dead. The Goggles, on the other hand, sometimes they do nothing. It's also worth nothing that whereas duel decks usually play a ton of spells like Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, again, you just won't see those in large numbers in a multiplayer sphere. All-in-all I have low expectations for this thing and I don't really expect it to make many waves. I jope to one day be proven wrong about it, I'd love for this kind of card to be actively good, I just don't see how that's probably when it figures to have no effect on a huge % of your spells.
EDH Rating [b]D+[/b]
Constructed Rating [b]D[/b]
Cube Rating [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Sigil of Valor: Most people probably just glossed over this card but it's way closer to being playable than you probably think. Any piece of Equipment that's cheap to cast and Equip but that still has a potentially powerful effect is worth considering in your creature-based builds. I can almost guarantee you that if it didn't say "each other creature" that it would basically be a staple. I've played against Sublime Archangel enough to know just how powerful that effect is and while you lose the 4/3 flier you gain a ton of durability. Ultimately I don't think that this card makes the cut, that "lost" +1/+1 does break it for me, but this significantly closer to being a legitimate bomb than most of the crap that Wizards has churned out in these past few years.
Global Grade [b]D-[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Sword of the Animist: This card reminds me of Mask of Memory in many ways. While it'll never rival uber equipment such as Skullclamp and/or Sword of Light and Shadow it's still powerful enough to provide a lot of value in a casual, multiplayer setting at a price point that average players can afford. I'm not entirely sure that that second part is true, I think that it might be pre-selling for like $6.00, but hopefully it'll crash and burn once it sees 0 play. Assuming that this thing becomes virtually free I do strongly encourage casual players to scoop some up to flesh out their lists. Much like Mask of Memory it's a fantastic way to squeeze some extra value from your critters since it's usually easy to find "open" players in large, Chaos games. Obviously Sword of the Animist doesn't even have to connect, just an attack is fine, but it's nice when you're not suiciding threats in the process of ramping. I'm glad the Equip cost is only 2 since it would have been unplayable otherwise but that's just low enough that you can equip, attack, and still cast a spell every turn (more or less).
For what it's worth I think that these cards are significantly more "fun" (I know how subjective that term is) in formats such as Cube than things like Sword of Body and Mind. This is just a small rant so feel free to skip ahead but I personally hate what Swords of X and Y do to multiplayer games. Far too often they'e 1-card kill conditions that slaughter players outright. The protections usually blank anything and everything that they could otherwise do to interact at which point they become a fish in a barrel. Seeing someone lose 15 minutes into a 2 hour EDH game is just disheartening and so I personally advocate against the use of Swords whenever possible. I also refuse to add them to my Cubes because I just don't like the play patterns that they create. The point here is that even though cards like Sword of the Animist and Loxodon Warhammer are objectively worse than things like Swords there is some merit to omitting them from your decks/Cubes.
Global Grade [b]C-[/b]
[b]Cubeworthy[/b]
War Horn: Anything that says "attacking creatures" on it is probably unplayable and War Horn is no exception. Multiplayer Magic just isn't a format that revolves around curving out with lots of small dudes and turning them sideways. There's way more blocking, ramping, card drawing and overpowering your adversaries with unfair tactics.
Global Grade [b]F[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
[b]Overall Grade: C[/b]
[b]Closing Thoughts:[/b] For better or for worse Alhammarret's Archive is going to see a lot of EDH play and even if I don't plan on abusing the card much myself it would be foolish of me to dismiss such an obvious casual staple. People just love doubling effects in general and a double double (where are we, Tim Horton's?) is twice as nice. Otherwise I really like Hangerback Walker as a cheap 2-drop in Artifact-based decks because other than Arcbound Ravager and Steel Overseer that slot is hurting. Also bear in mind that neither card is especially budget-friendly so let's not assume that everyone can afford to run either. While he's not my cup of tea I expect Chief of the Foundry to straddle next to Master of Etherium in said artifact decks because casual players just plain adore lords. Nothing else jumps off the page at me but Sword of the Animist is a tier above the other potential playables and I do expect to see it a fair amount in slower formats such as EDH. Finally, Helm of the Gods, Pyromancer's Goggles and even Orbs of Warding could all see some amount of play but I'm not much stock in any of them.
[b]Land[/b]
Battlefield Forge et al.: As much as I dislike hating on dual lands that don't ETBT I cannot stand Painlands in a multiplayer setting. Games go long and life total matters a lot and you just plain can't afford to take 6+ extra damage from your spells in most instances. While these aren't quite as bad as Mana Confluence and the like it's still extremely difficult to make them work in my experience. If you have absolutely nothing better to run and can't afford to play with ETBT lands then do what you have to do but in general I strongly discourage investing in these kinds of lands for casual, multiplayer purposes.
Global Grade [b]D[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Evolving Wilds: As much as we'd all love to crack a Polluted Delta for an Underground Sea on turn 1 every game the reality is that most Magic decks are built on relatively tight budgets. While Evolving Wilds will never be the best option for color fixing it's extremely cheap, trivial to acquire and does an adequate job of fixing your colors. Beyond that I'm not exactly sure how to grade these types of lands because they're significantly worse than the versions that are 72x more expensive but from a practical standpoint they're cheap and get the job done. If you owned real Fetchlands then you'd clearly never play with them but for your average Joe they're the glue that bring your lists together. Whether you want to call that a B, C, D, F, it doesn't really matter because you're not playing it because you want to. Rather, you field these kinds of cards because you have to and at that point it's just a matter of weighing the pros and cons between things like Evolving Wilds and other budget options such as Guildgates, Bouncelands, etc.
Global Grade [b]D[/b]
[b]Cubeworthy[/b]
Foundry of the Consuls: I'm all for "spell lands" that still have value in the later stages of the game but a pair of 1/1 fliers isn't going to cut it in a competitive sphere. Even if your gamplan involves jamming Life from the Loam and/or Crucible of Worlds you're still not going to make much head-way. For a 1/1 flier to have relevance you'd need to be playing with Auras, Equipment and/or Bestow effects but even then this card is a far cry from amazing. I suppose that it's better than actual nothing if your 1-2 color deck has no need for basics (Vedalken Shackles et al.) but by no means is this a powerful card that you should be actively looking to play.
Global Grade [b]D-[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/c]
Mage-Ring Network: A colorless version of Dreadship Reef isn't going to interest most people but the fact that it doesn't cost mana to activate is a decent bonus. Mono-colored decks probably won't care much about the color of the mana to begin with so any increase in quantity is probably a significant upgrade. Obviously you have have to tap it so you can't split the mana across multiple turns but that's a largely irrelevant drawback in my mind. Paying the 1 is significantly worse than the tap requirement. Anyways, I think that these kinds of Storage Lands are underplayed for their cost. While they may not be able to compete with the likes of Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Cloudpost, Cabal Coffers, etc. they're basically free to purchase and they can still enable you to cast stupidly expensive spells pas ta certain point. I personally feel that if you're not fielding some amount of "Insurrection" type spells that you're just plain doing it wrong. Turning fair creatures sideways and casting removal spells can only take you so far so you really should be looking to support the most unfair gameplans imaginable. Anyways, Storage Lands are sweet because 1-2 of them ramp-up quickly and before long they allow you to jam things like Debt to the Deathless for millions. Given that they don't ETBT to begin with they don't exactly slow you down and you only have to store mana when you don't have anything else to do with your mana. Since the payoff is the ability to cast an extremely unfair spell/sequence of spells I see very little reason to omit these kinds of lands from your 1-2 color builds assuming that you don't have access to superior alternatives.
Global Grade [b]C[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
Rogue's Passage: This is one the cards that I completely overlooked when it was first printed. Paying 5 mana for a "marginal" effect didn't interest me at the time but since then I've come to appreciate just how powerful it actually is. From Wight of Precinct Six to Hydra Omnivore Black and Green can field a ton of extremely large creatures that struggle to actually connect with people but when they do, watch out, because they don't mess around. While this card has basically no value in the early stages of the game it's still a land that doesn't ETBT so unless you're playing with 3+ colors and have strict requirements it doesn't cost much to run it. Where the card shines is in the later stages of the game where board stalls and chump blockers become a serious problem. The ability to connect with the aforementioned "Lord of Extinction" type threats is a huge game and Commander damage is a very real win condition in EDH. Even if you look outside of Black and Green the others still have some large beaters at their disposal (think Taurean Mauler) and Equipment is still a thing. You usually don't need many hits from a Strata Scythe/Bonehoard to take someone down so anything that can force them through is a worthwhile effect.
Constructed + EDH Grade [b]B[/b]
Cube Grade [b]D[/b]
[b]Not Cubeworthy[/b]
[b]Overall Grade: D-[/b]
[b]Closing Thoughts:[/b] Nothing to see here folks. Painslands suck, Rogue's Passage/Evolving Wilds were never expensive nor difficult to acquire, Foundry of the Consuls is too weak to see serious play and Mage-Ring Network only works in a very small subset of 1-2 color decks as a budget alternative. Cue the "whan whan" foghorn sound effect.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
BAM!
Go into your lands section just above Mage-Ring Network your Not Cubeworthy ends incorrectly on your bold. Its currently a card end and not a bold end which is throwing everything off. Whenever I have a problem like this I go to the test forums and I start subdividing and cutting half of the text out. If the tags are still funky then the error is in the half still there otherwise its in the half you cut out. It takes a while to narrow this way but the alternative is absolutely terrible.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Thank you so much, you're my hero! I swear that I tried to look through them all but I guess I just missed it :<. Of course it was down in the lands section; I was probably zoned-out by the time that I got that far :/.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies