This is my 26th installment of the "top 20" set preview articles! Just like the previous reviews, it will be in a spoiled top X countdown format, with each section having an image, a brief summary/description, and my verdict on what cubes I think it could potentially see some play in. I got a lot of positive feedback on the format from the last few articles, so I’m going to keep the “what I like” and “what I don’t like” sections.
Keep in mind (just like the others) that this is a set preview. Similar to draft predictions in professional sports, this list is an educated guess at best. Some cards I value highly in here may turn out to not last long in the cube. Other cards that are lower down on the list (or even missed entirely!) could (well, very likely may) turn out to be great cards. Even Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round! Again, this is not intended to be gospel, set in stone or written as a review for posterity. This is simply written to be an enjoyable guess at cards I like for cubes, and hopefully it'll allow some cube managers to evaluate cards they may have otherwise overlooked and/or put some cards in perspective that may've been overhyped. Nothing more.
Core sets have returned! Typically for us cubers it means that Wizards has an opportunity to reprint some needed cards, and explore non-planed generic themes. This often allows for some functional reprints, or close takes on existing cards with minor changes and updated wording. This core set, however, was a throwback to some classic magic themes with cycles, planeswalkers in every color, and elder dragon legends in every shard. It’s not an amazing set for cube, but there are fun and interesting cards worth discussing, and some cards that can add depth to some of the more fringe archetypes if you choose to support them.
What I Like: If you support both a red token theme or a red goblin theme, this rather unassuming creature can end up being a playable bread-and-butter kind of effect. Similar to Dragon Fodder, you get 2 power and 2 bodies for 2 mana, and in decks that can make those creatures into more than what they present at face value, it can be worthwhile for you. But unlike the spell-centric versions of this effect, it’s attached to a body. This can matter for cards that specifically benefit goblin cards, as well as cards that interact positively with the body. This is likely worse for these kinds of decks than a card like Mogg War Marshal, but it can attack for 2 on T3 without having to pay echo, and the body can be blinked for value without having to re-pay echo to keep it around. Since the War Marshal doesn’t give you the trigger unless it dies, this can make Instigator easier to abuse in some situations where the Marshal isn’t ideal.
What I Don't Like: Unlike its spell counterparts, it loses the spells-matters/prowess bonuses they can provide, and it has a lower body-count ceiling than War Marshal.
Verdict: If you have a bigger cube that’s deep on either a goblin theme or a red token theme (or ideally both) this can be a reasonable filler card for your decks. Otherwise though, it just doesn’t do enough.
What I Like: Enchantment themes in cubes can be quite powerful if you support them, but they need a critical mass of powerful support cards to make them work. This creature does that for you. It’s arguably the best 3cc Enchantress that we’ve seen, since it has a far more reasonable body than most of it’s like-effects. Alongside cards like Argothian Enchantress, Eidolon of Blossoms, Enchantress’s Presence, Mesa Enchantress and Verduran Enchantress, these kinds of decks might have the critical mass they need to reliably draw their engine cards that enable their deck.
What I Don't Like: It’s a gold Gray Ogre as a base, which means it’s not any more survivable or easier to slot into decks than previous versions of the effect. And it still requires a significant modification to the way the cube is designed to make the subtheme work.
Verdict: If you’re already playing a deep enchantment theme, this is a card you’re likely dying to play. And if you’re not currently playing one, this might be the kind of card that piques your interest just enough to make you want to try it out. But obviously, outside of a cube engineered to take full advantage of this effect, it’s not going to be remotely good enough.
A defensive body with some card advantage potential.
What I Like: In a multiplayer environment, I think this creature can really shine. It can provide an early defensive body that can effectively block most any creature that might pressure you early, and with multiple opponents that are capable of triggering its effect, the potential for this dino to generate card advantage goes way up. It survives the early sweepers and toughness-based removal you might expect to run into in that kind of environment too.
What I Don't Like: The double-green cost and the conditional card advantage are big strikes against it. Green decks often lean on the midrange part of the spectrum, and those decks just aren’t desperate for a defensive body, especially when there are so many reliable sources of card advantage at the 3cc creature slot in green that are more impactful on the average game state.
Verdict: Multiplayer cubes might get some good mileage out of this dinosaur, but I don’t think it provides an effect I’m looking for in the majority of my conventional 1v1 games.
A 5cc card advantage engine that may also grind out wins in slow matches.
What I Like: The slower the format, the more valuable this effect will be. It does a good impression of Honden of Seeing Winds; a hard-to-interact-with card that draws you an extra card per turn. You have an 82% chance of drawing at least 1 card, and about a 39% chance of drawing 2 or 3 cards when it triggers …and it averages more than 1 card per turn. That’s a pretty reasonable return in games that are going to be long and drawn out, like control mirrors. Additionally, in those kinds of games, milling for 3 cards a turn is also a realistic clock you can put the opponent on too. Even without additional milling effects, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if you could steal games with some kind of consistency. If you happen to support a mill theme as well, this will perform multiple roles for you, and becomes a pretty attractive option.
What I Don't Like: Unfortunately, most conventional cubes are simply too fast for this kind of effect nowadays. So cubes with healthy aggro and combo support will be able to largely ignore this card and just run its controller over. A 5cc card with no immediate board impact is just too hard to justify nowadays.
Verdict: Cubes that are fundamentally slower in nature or cubes that support a mill archetype (or again, ideally both) might get good value out of a card like this. But most traditional cubes just won’t be able to play it.
What I Like: In decks loaded with tokens and recursive creatures, this is a very large 4-drop that once it’s in play doesn’t have any other drawbacks you have to continue to navigate. The double-evasion makes it a very reliable win condition, and it’s hard to deal with via toughness-based removal. If your deck can get around the casting drawback, it’s one of the better oversized 4-drops with a drawback in black.
What I Don't Like: There are situations where you just don’t have the food for it, or situations where the creature you have available to sacrifice to it is a valuable one. When those show up, it blanks or neuters the card pretty severely. Not to mention that this card’s drawback is a real cost when you encounter counter-magic, since the sacrifice is a cost and not an enters the battlefield effect.
Verdict: I’m not a fan of most of the commonly-played oversized 4cc beaters in black with drawbacks, and as far as those go, I think this is one of the better options. But I think the combination of being vulnerable to blue control and the conditional nature of the windows in which he’s castable with a low-to-no impact cost are going to be too much for him to overcome for most cubes. I might test it out in a large cube if I had a really dedicated token/sacrifice theme in black, but I wouldn’t have really high hopes for it.
What I Like: Vivien’s high loyalty and repeatable card advantage activation that can secure creatures will make her reasonably survivable. And her {-3} ability not only provides outs to powerful artifacts and enchantments, but can randomly Plummet flying creatures out of the sky for you. She has a relatively attainable ultimate that works well with her {+1} ability and will probably end the game once it hits the board. I think she’s one of the better options for green’s 5cc non-creature cards specifically.
What I Don't Like: Competition is relatively steep for green midrange 5cc cards once you factor in the depth of the 5cc creature slot. And unlike a card like Nissa, Worldwaker (which helps support a heavy-green super-ramp strategy) Vivien doesn’t help make a specific green archetype viable.
Verdict: I like Vivien more than most, and I think outside of Plow Under and Nissa, Worldwaker, Vivien is one of the better options for a green 5cc non-creature card. I think larger cubes should be giving her an opportunity to shine if you don’t have that slot filled with cards that are more critical to your specific green archetypes.
What I Like: Sai’s splashable cost and 4-toughness body makes him easy to resolve early and provides a good defensive presence. And strapping a free 1/1 flying artifact creature to every artifact you play can add up quickly in decks that are saturated with artifacts. And, his draw engine is pretty valuable in the late game, when you may have dispensable artifacts in play that you can cash in for cards; especially thopter tokens that are actively chump-blocking or the like.
What I Don't Like: Sai’s a bit slow to really push him into the upper-tier of artifact.dec support cards. A 2nd power, having his activated ability only cost 1 mana or having him only need to sacrifice 1 artifact to draw would’ve gone a long way towards making him a more viable inclusion in small cubes.
Verdict: I think Sai has the potential to be a reasonable artifact.dec support card for larger cubes looking to increase their saturation of cards that can help that deck work. But he just falls short of being fast or powerful enough to replace artifact support cards in smaller lists.
What I Like: In decks that are going to be full of creatures you want to sacrifice, Oracle’s activated ability is pretty powerful. It will allow you to cash in creature tokens and recursive bodies for true card value, including making critical land drops. And the opportunity cost is relatively low, since he’s at least going to be a red Grizzly Bears as a baseline, and he can always sacrifice himself if the body becomes too anemic.
What I Don't Like: My favorite use for sacrifice outlets is the ability to do it in response to my opponent’s actions and get incidental value where I’d otherwise be losing those cards for no value. Dark-Dweller makes it hard for me to effectively do that since it both costs mana to activate the effect AND I can’t play any of my sorcery-speed cards that might get revealed.
Verdict: Red’s 2cc creatures aren’t amazing for larger cubes, and if you play a token/recursion centric theme in the cube, Oracle isn’t a bad filler card for those kinds of decks. I might be willing to try it out in a 720 card cube if I supported multiple decks that want his effect.
What I Like: A 3-mana 3/3 flying creature is a solid baseline, and with either a dedicated lifegain strategy OR a deck that will reliable be able to active its ability, it has potential to be quite powerful. With Lyras and Baneslayers floating around, there can be situations where this can trigger on both end steps, and the card will be absurdly good.
What I Don't Like: White’s 3cc creatures are fantastic, and the hurdle to have creatures compete there is pretty hard to leap. A lot of decks won’t be able to rely on reaching 6 mana, and a lot of cubes don’t feature enough 5+ lifegain effects to reliably trigger it. And a 3-mana 3/3 flying doesn’t hack it in that slot.
Verdict: I think this card is being overvalued by a lot of cube managers out there, and I really don’t think it’s a spectacular card. I would play it in cubes that are both larger in size AND have enough lifegain support not to be forced to rely on the activated ability to make it work.
What I Like: This is functionally similar to a 2/1 with haste for 2 mana, with the upside of being unblockable the turn it’s cast. A function that was pointed out by SaucyFaucet here on MTGS. That’s not a bad baseline, considering that it also has the ability to randomly be hit by Flickerwisps and Restos for extra free reach too. It’s not particularly flashy, but it’s a solid creature. It has the advantage of guaranteeing damage when it’s a late-game topdeck that a French vanilla 2/1 haste just wouldn’t have.
What I Don't Like: This will often be nothing more than a generic 2/1 “haste” for 2 mana, which isn’t something most cube managers are dying to get into their cubes. Boring in decks that have no way to get any additional triggers from it.
Verdict: The quality of red 2cc creatures drops off relatively quickly, so I could see cubes in the 630-720 range be satisfied enough with a basic but solid filler creature to give it a go.
A midrange beater that can provide a sizable discount.
What I Like: Goreclaw is a legendary bear, which is cool. And he has a splashable casting cost, and can attack as a 5-power creature with trample. But his most valuable effect is his ability to discount the cost of your other bigger creatures. It allows you to play Titan-quality creatures immediately on curve, and also provides them with additional bonuses when they attack later on. Curving from him into a 5cc Myr Battlesphere or the like will be quite strong, and I don’t think you have to a lot of build-around work in most green midrange decks to have a reasonable chance of getting at least 1 meaningful mana discount. 2-mana Flametongue Kavus and 3-mana Verdurous Gearhulks sound pretty appealing to me. Not to mention that it also buffs those creatures as well; giving +1/+1 and trample to your attacking creatures that are often weak to chump blocks.
What I Don't Like: When he’s not attacking, he just sits on the board with 3-toughness, just dying to be Bolted or Incinerated. It can be hard to justify 4cc cards that are both conditional in nature AND are that vulnerable to so many cheap removal spells.
Verdict: In my experience, the 4cc creature slot in green is pretty weak, and I could see myself wanting to try this out in a cube that’s like 630+ cards or more just to see what kind of impact the creature discount might provide for me. It can lead to some pretty explosive follow-up plays, and can be easily slotted into a variety of decks because of his splashable cost. I might test it out at 540 or so just to see what kinds of stories it can create, even if it just might be a placeholder for a future staple 4-drop.
What I Like: I think this card compares favorably to other overcosted colorless removal+ effects we’ve seen out there. Golem has a powerful enters the battlefield trigger, which doesn’t need to be cast to go off. In comparison to an effect like Duplicant’s, Golem can hit any non-creature permanent. It has a static 3/3 body, which is sometimes better and sometimes worse than what you might expect from Duplicant, but for the extra 1 mana, you convert the creature removal into a non-land removal effect, which is significantly more powerful. Being able to target planeswalkers and problematic artifacts/enchantments in addition to creatures provides a ton of extra value. But where I think Golem will have a chance to shine is in decks that can abuse the fact that it’s an artifact and/or a creature, and try to flip it in and out of play to get multiple triggers. Recurring Nightmare, Mimic Vat, Feldon, Welder, Daretti… these kinds of cards will make Golem so much more than the solid but unexciting play he provides at face value and can make it into something really powerful. But even at face value, killing their planeswalker and leaving a 3/3 body behind can be worth 7 colorless mana; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played Karn in situations where he had to vindicate a clutch permanent, and the remaining loyalty just got attacked down on my opponent’s following turn. Golem can provide that kind of play as a baseline, and be ready for abuse on subsequent turns.
What I Don't Like: Face-value mode is very fair. 7 mana isn’t cheap, and without ways to abuse it, it’ll likely only make the final 40 as a backup cheat target or a 23rd playable at best.
Verdict: I love Welder/Nightmare/Feldon/Vat kinds of decks, and if I had a colorless slot that wasn’t insanely competitive to test Golem in over, I might give it a shot. I might test it at 540+, and it wouldn’t surprise me if bigger cubes that support the kinds of decks where he can shine find some permanent use for Golem in the long run. I think this one will play better than it looks at first glance.
What I Like: LucidVision did a good job of convincing me that this card is better than I thought it was at first glance. A 4-mana 4/4 flying Ravenous Rats is a decent enough baseline, because even if it is answered before you can transform it, it’s still going to be a 2-for-1 that provided a decent board presence. And when you do hit your 7th mana and can flip it, it’s an insanely strong card on the back. Card advantage, removal, reanimation and a game-ending ultimate. But the most important aspect of this Bolas is how valuable it is in all the situations where the other versions of him aren’t yet castable. Basically, I’d rather use the version that has the 4-mana failsafe mode built in just in case the other more expensive Bolases would just be rotting in my hand.
What I Don't Like: If your curve goes straight to 7 or 8 with no hiccups and the opponent has ample removal for the 4-mana dragon, you would’ve been better off with the harder-to-interact-with versions of Bolas.
Verdict: There’s a really good chance that this is the best Grixis card for cubes. If you play shard/wedge cards, I’d recommend giving this guy a shot and seeing if it’s better than the other options. It still gives you a bomb 7cc ‘walker to play with …it just comes with the 4cc discard dragon mode attached to it first. Occasionally a bad thing, but usually a welcome mode that may just be good enough on its own to do some winning for you while you’re waiting for that 7th mana. 540 is probably the sweet spot for mw where I’d add this in.
What I Like: I like that this can serve as the long-lost honorary black 5cc creature we need in a lot of curves. You can play it and activate it on the same turn, giving you 5 power across 2-bodies for 5 mana, which is better than the other options black has for fringe 5-drops. But it can also be a 3-power 2-drop when the mana allows, and it adds free value to every other creature you have die. It can be an amazing topdeck, and it can grind out wins post-sweeper when you have a stocked ‘yard.
What I Don't Like: The double-black cost will stop this from coming down on-curve a lot of the time, and it needs to go into a deck with a relatively high creature count to keep the ability live.
Verdict: The value this can provide as a later-game 2-drop is pretty high, and I like that it can generate an army of zombies for you over time. I like that it’s a secret hybrid 2cc/5cc creature, because black can honestly use the support in both of those areas. I don’t know if this is good enough to crack 450 lists, but I’d test this at 540+ and expect it to do relatively well.
What I Like: This reminds me a lot of Alesha. 3-power attacking creature for 3 mana with a relevant keyword that brings cheap creatures back from the dead when it attacks. Isareth has the advantage of being one color, the ability to trade up in combat, and the ability to recur creatures regardless of their size (assuming you have the mana for them). Overall, it’s a pretty powerful combination of abilities that can further utilize your ‘yard as a resource and reliably keep yourself in threats.
What I Don't Like: Alesha brings creatures back tapped and attacking, which provides more pressure than Isareth, and can return creatures with lower power and a higher CMC for cheaper. More importantly, it’s easier to make abusive creature chains with Alesha. Isareth exiles the creatures she resurrects if they die a 2nd time; that’s a significant drawback that Alesha doesn’t have. And she doesn’t trade with beast tokens in combat. Overall I think that Alesha is a bit better, but I do think that Isareth can be a solid performer, and can do quite a few things Alesha can’t do at all.
Verdict: I think Isareth’s value is definitely big game, and a 3/3 deathtouch body isn’t a bad basline. It’s hard to trade her down in combat, and she’ll trade up with anything bigger that wants to tangle with her. I’m not sure if she’d crack the more competitive creature selection in smaller cubes, but I’d definitely be testing her at 540.
What I Like: Man-O’-War is an awesome creature, and like 9 times out of 10, this will be the same card. As steve_man pointed out, this can be run out on an empty board if the need arises, allowing you to pressure planeswalkers and pick up equipment even if your opponent doesn’t have a creature for you to target. And, the creature type being human wizard might be important depending on what your cube composition looks like.
What I Don't Like: While Mage can be run out on an empty board, it can’t target your own creatures. I sometimes find myself wanting to buy back creatures with powerful ETB abilities or reset cards that have picked up -1/-1 counters or the like with my Man-O’-War triggera, and I lose that flexibility with Mage. That’s a slightly bigger drawback for my playgroup than for others from what I can tell, but I think I’ve bounced my own guys more times with Man-O’-War than I’ve had it stranded in my hand over the years.
Verdict: Great tempo creature. I could see this replacing Man-O’-War if you value its upside more than its drawback in comparison. Or if you’re in the market for a 2nd copy, you can just run both. That’s what I’d do in cubes that are about 540 cards or bigger.
What I Like: Warleader creates a bigger life total swing than Hero does when it attacks. Thanks to the lifelink on the tokens, the first attack creates an 8 point life swing and the 2nd swing creates a 12 point swing. It applies slightly less pressure than Hero when the board is otherwise empty, but in creature mirrors and races, the overall life swing can really matter. And, if the opponent manages to deal with the main body, the tokens it leaves behind have lifelink, which is a small but occasionally meaningful advantage.
What I Don't Like: Hero applies more pressure directly to the opponent’s life total, puts them on a faster clock and the battle cry trigger can benefit my existing board presence (if there is one). I think that puts Warleader slightly behind Hero, and not every cube will be in the market for two of these guys.
Verdict: Despite Hero likely being slightly better, I think they’re both great. I love token decks; especially when they come together entirely from cards that are good enough on their own. I think Warleader fits that description, and I’d find a way to include it alongside Hero even in cubes as small as 450+ or so.
What I Like: The new Tezz resolves with a lot of loyalty. And he can immediately tick up to {6} the turn he comes down while providing a flying blocker to protect himself with. The {+1} ability is good to develop the board with pesky evasive beaters and/or flying blockers, in addition to having it increase your artifact count. This is relevant for both an artifact.dec strategy or just to further enable his {+0} ability, which is quite good. The draw ability is strong. It can dig for gas when needed, or if you have metalcraft, it just starts drawing you 2 extra cards per turn! The ultimate ability is powerful if you can get there too, allowing you to dump free big permanents to the board every turn right from your library.
What I Don't Like: In decks with no other artifacts, it’ll likely be too hard to unlock the broken draw ability off just the {+1} alone, turning Tezz into either a 5cc Bitterblossom or a Honden of the Seeing Winds; neither being particularly impressive.
Verdict: Cuts are hard in small cubes, particularly in blue. I wanted to find a home for this in my 450 card cube, and if you’re all in on the artifact.dec, you probably should. He’s very, very good in decks loaded with artifacts. But as a face-value ‘walker that will only have marginal artifact support, it’ll likely get relegated to 540+ cubes.
What I Like: The baseline 2/2 body for 2 isn’t bad for a creature with multiple activated abilities. I like the flexibility of being able to bash for 2 when the coast is clear, and also having access to multiple activated abilities when the board becomes too congested to profitably attack. Most options in the 2cc creature slot for red get stonewalled in the same spots; the opponent plays a 2/3 or 3/3 body and attacking with your cheap creatures comes to a halt until you can clear the roadway. Pyromancer gets shut down by all the same creatures as the rest of red’s options at 2, except he at least provides you with some utility value when that happens. Can’t attack? No problem, I can rummage away excess lands and look for that removal spell I need to clear the path. Outlived the expected usefulness of a generic bear? No problem, I can cash Pyromancer in on a Flame Slash activation and clear out a problematic threat from the other side of the table. Opponent kills it with removal? Who cares, you spent 2-mana on it. I’ve heard discussion that Pyromancer just shouldn’t be played in aggro, and I have to disagree. It turns situations where my other options would’ve been dead into something that can at least provide some value, and it’s been quite solid in that role so far in testing. Not to mention the fact that the rummaging ability is useful in a variety of red decks that use the ‘yard as a resource (like Rakdos Stax, the artifact.dec and reanimator shells), and the burn spell mode is good in decks that can bring creatures back from the dead for extra value.
What I Don't Like: I really wish I didn’t have to tap the Pyromancer for the removal spell mode. And looting > rummaging. But honestly, it would’ve been too good if it was constructed in either of those two ways.
Verdict: I have been really pleased with Pyromancer in testing so far. Not sure if it would crack 360 card cubes or not, but it’s been playing well enough to be impressive at 450.
What I Like: The floor of a 2/1 flying for 2 mana is good in aggressive color combinations. Especially when any extra value you get beyond that baseline comes free of cost. Cleric is fantastic. It will be a serviceable beater that can play in aggro decks, 2-power abuse decks, Moat shells… most every white deck that isn’t pure control. And there are just some decks that are centered around a graveyard strategy that just get hosed by Cleric. The ability to shoehorn silver bullet cards (that can be targeted by both Recruiters!) into your deck at an almost zero opportunity cost is plain bonkers. I’ve loved Selfless Spirit in the cube, and I’m stoked to give him a buddy.
What I Don't Like: It might create some feel bad moments when this resolves against your reanimator deck and just colds your entire strategy …but that’s only fair considering you’re trying to put a T2/3 Griselbrand onto the table, and that’s not exactly fair either.
Verdict: I can’t imagine not wanting to cube this card. Unless you have no cards in the cube that interact with graveyards, I’d play this card even at 360.
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to comment below. Cheers, and happy cubing.
Great list! Enjoyed all the write-ups and no real disagreements or critiques.
How do you like the new Tezz versus the old 5cmc Tezzeret the Seeker? I'm working towards supporting the artifact deck in my 360 unpowered. Would you recommend one over the other or even both if I could find room? I'm not running Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas because The Scarab God and Baleful Strix seem to good to cut. But I am tempted to add the Dimir Tezz.
Or do you think it's foolhardy to pursue an artifact deck archetype in 360 unpowered since slots are so precious?
While not a particularly strong cube set, it has lots of toys for specific archtypes, artifacts, enchantments, life matters, graveyard, even a few decent cards for pauper cubes.
I was surprised by the high rank of Dismissive Pyromancer. But as to your point, the sheer versatiliy is quite unique to red. Perhaps I want to put it in so Red is not just an “attack and burn” strategy. (Though technically, it will just still enable finding burn spells or clear the field to attack)
At least it gived red more depth.
And again, thank you for the cube review. As always, both entertaining and thought provoking.
And as a person who does not have time to play let alone playtest cube, I truly appreciate all the sharing.
Surprised you ranked dismissive pyromancer as high as you did, but I don't disagree... No idea how good it will be , but I'm excited to find out. Such a cool card!
Also you convinced me that meteor golem is very close to cubeable at medium sizes.. passed over the card completly, but I realize there are many good artifact interactions that make it pretty great in an artifact deck that can recur creatures.
Kind of an artifact.dec only card though, and those slots are getting more and more competitive as time goes by.
Great list! Enjoyed all the write-ups and no real disagreements or critiques.
How do you like the new Tezz versus the old 5cmc Tezzeret the Seeker? I'm working towards supporting the artifact deck in my 360 unpowered. Would you recommend one over the other or even both if I could find room? I'm not running Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas because The Scarab God and Baleful Strix seem to good to cut. But I am tempted to add the Dimir Tezz.
Or do you think it's foolhardy to pursue an artifact deck archetype in 360 unpowered since slots are so precious?
I think OG Tezz is z bit better, because he can tutor up clutch artifacts and untap mana rocks to cast big-mana cards. In addition to having an ultimate that can win games in certain spots that is available as early as the next turn.
But you may not be able to get the saturation you need to make the artifact.dec work in an unpowered 360 because of the competition.
'But if you do, play the Dimir Tezz. It's bonkers in that deck.
While not a particularly strong cube set, it has lots of toys for specific archtypes, artifacts, enchantments, life matters, graveyard, even a few decent cards for pauper cubes.
I was surprised by the high rank of Dismissive Pyromancer. But as to your point, the sheer versatiliy is quite unique to red. Perhaps I want to put it in so Red is not just an “attack and burn” strategy. (Though technically, it will just still enable finding burn spells or clear the field to attack)
At least it gived red more depth.
And again, thank you for the cube review. As always, both entertaining and thought provoking.
And as a person who does not have time to play let alone playtest cube, I truly appreciate all the sharing.
Oyromancer's high rank says more about red's 2's than it does about the Pyromancer itself. But ya, the card has been performing decently enough in testing so far.
Surprised you ranked dismissive pyromancer as high as you did, but I don't disagree... No idea how good it will be , but I'm excited to find out. Such a cool card!
Also you convinced me that meteor golem is very close to cubeable at medium sizes.. passed over the card completly, but I realize there are many good artifact interactions that make it pretty great in an artifact deck that can recur creatures.
Kind of an artifact.dec only card though, and those slots are getting more and more competitive as time goes by.
Ya, Pyromancer is slightly above-average in a sea of average options. It's not one of the best cards in the set, but it may turn out to be one of the best cube cards in the set because it's a solid playable option in a slot that isn't particularly competitive.
And Golem is a cool card. It needs a deck that can take advantage of it in order to make it worthwhile, but I don't think that'll be too hard to do.
Great article wtwlf, as usual. You've convinced me to give Graveyard Marshal a shot in my 540.
I have not givenMeteor Golem even the faintest consideration as an option in my 540. It probably is good enough to make several different decks but it feels so darn fair that I doubt it would see much maindeck play in my group. Interesting to think about at the very least.
Thanks for another great write-up. I had Dismissive Pyromancer on the sidelines but you've convinced me to give him a shot. I do really love flexible cards that give players options. Can't go so far as to get behind new Bolas over either of the PW options... most Grixis builds in my cube want that top-end game-sealer much more than an on-curve beater.
Great article wtwlf, as usual. You've convinced me to give Graveyard Marshal a shot in my 540.
I have not givenMeteor Golem even the faintest consideration as an option in my 540. It probably is good enough to make several different decks but it feels so darn fair that I doubt it would see much maindeck play in my group. Interesting to think about at the very least.
I like that Marshal can function as a secret 5-drop.
And Golem is a really fair card. It'll be solid enough, but it's not super impressive. Players will be less interested in it because it's not flashy, even if it would otherwise be a solid performer. The maindeckability will suffer because of that, I agree.
Thanks for another great write-up. I had Dismissive Pyromancer on the sidelines but you've convinced me to give him a shot. I do really love flexible cards that give players options. Can't go so far as to get behind new Bolas over either of the PW options... most Grixis builds in my cube want that top-end game-sealer much more than an on-curve beater.
Pyromancer is one of those cards that played better for me than it looked on paper. I found both of his activated abilities to be useful in the face of opposing blockers; when any other piker or bear that might be in his slot would be unable to do anything. There's value in that. And, he's been very solid in reanimator, Loam shells & the artifact.dec as a discard outlet, and in Recruiter/'Lark decks as recurring removal.
As someone with a slower, larger cube, almost all of these cards are ones I'd be willing to add. I'm glad to see Meteor Golem get some respect. I figured I was the only person who liked that card.
I think it's interesting that the shoo in at 360 is the innocuous looking Remorseful Cleric. It is true that the cube is pretty starved for playable cards with incidental graveyard hate. Withered Wretch and Nezumi Graverobber are about as good as we've had outside of narrow hosers like Relic of Progenitus. I'm sure I won't, but I could actually see playing two copies of Remorseful Cleric, as the redundancy isn't really there.
As someone with a slower, larger cube, almost all of these cards are ones I'd be willing to add. I'm glad to see Meteor Golem get some respect. I figured I was the only person who liked that card.
I think it's interesting that the shoo in at 360 is the innocuous looking Remorseful Cleric. It is true that the cube is pretty starved for playable cards with incidental graveyard hate. Withered Wretch and Nezumi Graverobber are about as good as we've had outside of narrow hosers like Relic of Progenitus. I'm sure I won't, but I could actually see playing two copies of Remorseful Cleric, as the redundancy isn't really there.
Ya, Golem is cool and I like him.
Graveyard hate is hard to come by, and if you can get it strapped to an otherwise playable card, that's awesome.
Thanks for another great review! Truth be told I never fill my preorder until I read what you have to say, and this time you convinced me on the cleric, Vivien, and the leonin warcaller. In fact, going in my only include was going to be the pyromancer.
To that end, what would you cut for Vivirn, Freyalise or 5-mana Garruk?
Thanks for another great review! Truth be told I never fill my preorder until I read what you have to say, and this time you convinced me on the cleric, Vivien, and the leonin warcaller. In fact, going in my only include was going to be the pyromancer.
To that end, what would you cut for Vivirn, Freyalise or 5-mana Garruk?
You're welcome!
I think Freyalise would be my cut, since it's a more like-for-like trade.
While overall a loose set for cube it has lots of focused options that allow cube builders to express themselves. And as the years go by and the pool gets bigger we have less of a definitive list of cube cards and it is more about the ~20% that help you build out specific archetypes, theaters, combos etc.
The Remoserful Cleric is great. 2 drops in white are all ok but not great, and I want more flyers. But most importantly I wanted another piece of graveyard hate strapped to a useful card. Hell I just put stonecloaker in, so easy 31 for my cube.
Dismissive Pyromancer has performed well where I have seen it so for, and outside of Young Pyromancer and Kari Zev I am not overly attached to my red 2 drops. It adds another piece of reanimator support to red, which I very much enjoy.
Grave Marshal will fit the bill as an honorary 5 drop for me and sometimes hit on 2. Not sure how long it will stick but I keep toying with adding full tribal zombie support and we are getting very close.
Meteor Golem is the only other I am still thinking about. Need to keep one handy as maybe a tinker target, possibly as a replacement for duplicant. Also love it in any Daretti or Mimic Vat deck. 7 is a lot but that is as sexy an etb as you will find.
Bolas is a maybe because he is so good. I haven't really gotten as much Kess time as I would like but I think my group would like Bolas more.....
Now that we've had a lot of time to play with the set, I'd say that in hindsight, the low rating of Vivien Reid and the fact that Dryad Greenseeker didn't make the list seem the be the biggest things I would disagree with.
Vivien is generally alot better than Acidic Slime for example, which is a cube staple. I'd say Slime is only more powerful in cubes that run ridiculously strong lands like Tolarian Academy, Gaea's Cradle, Maze of Ith, Library of Alexandria, etc. and even then, their power level is very similar. She compares very well to other green planeswalkers as well in my experience. She's played great with my playgroup. I feel like she could have placed as high as 6th on this list.
Dryad Greenseeker is a 2 drop that is comparable to Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya, and that alone should have placed it in the top 20. I feel like it could have have been placed as high as the 9-13 region on this list.
Greenseeker is okay, but I don't think it competes with the better green 2-drops in the cube, and I certainly wouldn't place it with Courser or Oracle.
And this:
Vivien is generally alot better than Acidic Slime
I disagree with wholeheartedly. I don't think they're even close, and I think Slime is miles better. Destroying lands is everything. Not just broken lands, but any land is fine. It's more consistently card advantage because it's always worth 2 cards, and it's an ETB effect strapped to a a 2/2 body, so it's abuseable with bounce/flicker/clone effects and the like. Slime >>>>>>>>>> Vivien.
This is my 26th installment of the "top 20" set preview articles! Just like the previous reviews, it will be in a spoiled top X countdown format, with each section having an image, a brief summary/description, and my verdict on what cubes I think it could potentially see some play in. I got a lot of positive feedback on the format from the last few articles, so I’m going to keep the “what I like” and “what I don’t like” sections.
Keep in mind (just like the others) that this is a set preview. Similar to draft predictions in professional sports, this list is an educated guess at best. Some cards I value highly in here may turn out to not last long in the cube. Other cards that are lower down on the list (or even missed entirely!) could (well, very likely may) turn out to be great cards. Even Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round! Again, this is not intended to be gospel, set in stone or written as a review for posterity. This is simply written to be an enjoyable guess at cards I like for cubes, and hopefully it'll allow some cube managers to evaluate cards they may have otherwise overlooked and/or put some cards in perspective that may've been overhyped. Nothing more.
Core sets have returned! Typically for us cubers it means that Wizards has an opportunity to reprint some needed cards, and explore non-planed generic themes. This often allows for some functional reprints, or close takes on existing cards with minor changes and updated wording. This core set, however, was a throwback to some classic magic themes with cycles, planeswalkers in every color, and elder dragon legends in every shard. It’s not an amazing set for cube, but there are fun and interesting cards worth discussing, and some cards that can add depth to some of the more fringe archetypes if you choose to support them.
Without further ado, I can start the countdown!
Goblin Instigator
A creature-based Dragon Fodder.
What I Like: If you support both a red token theme or a red goblin theme, this rather unassuming creature can end up being a playable bread-and-butter kind of effect. Similar to Dragon Fodder, you get 2 power and 2 bodies for 2 mana, and in decks that can make those creatures into more than what they present at face value, it can be worthwhile for you. But unlike the spell-centric versions of this effect, it’s attached to a body. This can matter for cards that specifically benefit goblin cards, as well as cards that interact positively with the body. This is likely worse for these kinds of decks than a card like Mogg War Marshal, but it can attack for 2 on T3 without having to pay echo, and the body can be blinked for value without having to re-pay echo to keep it around. Since the War Marshal doesn’t give you the trigger unless it dies, this can make Instigator easier to abuse in some situations where the Marshal isn’t ideal.
What I Don't Like: Unlike its spell counterparts, it loses the spells-matters/prowess bonuses they can provide, and it has a lower body-count ceiling than War Marshal.
Verdict: If you have a bigger cube that’s deep on either a goblin theme or a red token theme (or ideally both) this can be a reasonable filler card for your decks. Otherwise though, it just doesn’t do enough.
Satyr Enchanter
A new Enchantress support card.
What I Like: Enchantment themes in cubes can be quite powerful if you support them, but they need a critical mass of powerful support cards to make them work. This creature does that for you. It’s arguably the best 3cc Enchantress that we’ve seen, since it has a far more reasonable body than most of it’s like-effects. Alongside cards like Argothian Enchantress, Eidolon of Blossoms, Enchantress’s Presence, Mesa Enchantress and Verduran Enchantress, these kinds of decks might have the critical mass they need to reliably draw their engine cards that enable their deck.
What I Don't Like: It’s a gold Gray Ogre as a base, which means it’s not any more survivable or easier to slot into decks than previous versions of the effect. And it still requires a significant modification to the way the cube is designed to make the subtheme work.
Verdict: If you’re already playing a deep enchantment theme, this is a card you’re likely dying to play. And if you’re not currently playing one, this might be the kind of card that piques your interest just enough to make you want to try it out. But obviously, outside of a cube engineered to take full advantage of this effect, it’s not going to be remotely good enough.
Runic Armasaur
A defensive body with some card advantage potential.
What I Like: In a multiplayer environment, I think this creature can really shine. It can provide an early defensive body that can effectively block most any creature that might pressure you early, and with multiple opponents that are capable of triggering its effect, the potential for this dino to generate card advantage goes way up. It survives the early sweepers and toughness-based removal you might expect to run into in that kind of environment too.
What I Don't Like: The double-green cost and the conditional card advantage are big strikes against it. Green decks often lean on the midrange part of the spectrum, and those decks just aren’t desperate for a defensive body, especially when there are so many reliable sources of card advantage at the 3cc creature slot in green that are more impactful on the average game state.
Verdict: Multiplayer cubes might get some good mileage out of this dinosaur, but I don’t think it provides an effect I’m looking for in the majority of my conventional 1v1 games.
Patient Rebuilding
A 5cc card advantage engine that may also grind out wins in slow matches.
What I Like: The slower the format, the more valuable this effect will be. It does a good impression of Honden of Seeing Winds; a hard-to-interact-with card that draws you an extra card per turn. You have an 82% chance of drawing at least 1 card, and about a 39% chance of drawing 2 or 3 cards when it triggers …and it averages more than 1 card per turn. That’s a pretty reasonable return in games that are going to be long and drawn out, like control mirrors. Additionally, in those kinds of games, milling for 3 cards a turn is also a realistic clock you can put the opponent on too. Even without additional milling effects, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if you could steal games with some kind of consistency. If you happen to support a mill theme as well, this will perform multiple roles for you, and becomes a pretty attractive option.
What I Don't Like: Unfortunately, most conventional cubes are simply too fast for this kind of effect nowadays. So cubes with healthy aggro and combo support will be able to largely ignore this card and just run its controller over. A 5cc card with no immediate board impact is just too hard to justify nowadays.
Verdict: Cubes that are fundamentally slower in nature or cubes that support a mill archetype (or again, ideally both) might get good value out of a card like this. But most traditional cubes just won’t be able to play it.
Demon of Catastrophes
A big 4cc beater.
What I Like: In decks loaded with tokens and recursive creatures, this is a very large 4-drop that once it’s in play doesn’t have any other drawbacks you have to continue to navigate. The double-evasion makes it a very reliable win condition, and it’s hard to deal with via toughness-based removal. If your deck can get around the casting drawback, it’s one of the better oversized 4-drops with a drawback in black.
What I Don't Like: There are situations where you just don’t have the food for it, or situations where the creature you have available to sacrifice to it is a valuable one. When those show up, it blanks or neuters the card pretty severely. Not to mention that this card’s drawback is a real cost when you encounter counter-magic, since the sacrifice is a cost and not an enters the battlefield effect.
Verdict: I’m not a fan of most of the commonly-played oversized 4cc beaters in black with drawbacks, and as far as those go, I think this is one of the better options. But I think the combination of being vulnerable to blue control and the conditional nature of the windows in which he’s castable with a low-to-no impact cost are going to be too much for him to overcome for most cubes. I might test it out in a large cube if I had a really dedicated token/sacrifice theme in black, but I wouldn’t have really high hopes for it.
Vivien Reid
A 5cc value planeswalker.
What I Like: Vivien’s high loyalty and repeatable card advantage activation that can secure creatures will make her reasonably survivable. And her {-3} ability not only provides outs to powerful artifacts and enchantments, but can randomly Plummet flying creatures out of the sky for you. She has a relatively attainable ultimate that works well with her {+1} ability and will probably end the game once it hits the board. I think she’s one of the better options for green’s 5cc non-creature cards specifically.
What I Don't Like: Competition is relatively steep for green midrange 5cc cards once you factor in the depth of the 5cc creature slot. And unlike a card like Nissa, Worldwaker (which helps support a heavy-green super-ramp strategy) Vivien doesn’t help make a specific green archetype viable.
Verdict: I like Vivien more than most, and I think outside of Plow Under and Nissa, Worldwaker, Vivien is one of the better options for a green 5cc non-creature card. I think larger cubes should be giving her an opportunity to shine if you don’t have that slot filled with cards that are more critical to your specific green archetypes.
Sai, Master Thopterist
A decent artifact-matters support engine.
What I Like: Sai’s splashable cost and 4-toughness body makes him easy to resolve early and provides a good defensive presence. And strapping a free 1/1 flying artifact creature to every artifact you play can add up quickly in decks that are saturated with artifacts. And, his draw engine is pretty valuable in the late game, when you may have dispensable artifacts in play that you can cash in for cards; especially thopter tokens that are actively chump-blocking or the like.
What I Don't Like: Sai’s a bit slow to really push him into the upper-tier of artifact.dec support cards. A 2nd power, having his activated ability only cost 1 mana or having him only need to sacrifice 1 artifact to draw would’ve gone a long way towards making him a more viable inclusion in small cubes.
Verdict: I think Sai has the potential to be a reasonable artifact.dec support card for larger cubes looking to increase their saturation of cards that can help that deck work. But he just falls short of being fast or powerful enough to replace artifact support cards in smaller lists.
Dark-Dweller Oracle
A cheap proactive sacrifice outlet.
What I Like: In decks that are going to be full of creatures you want to sacrifice, Oracle’s activated ability is pretty powerful. It will allow you to cash in creature tokens and recursive bodies for true card value, including making critical land drops. And the opportunity cost is relatively low, since he’s at least going to be a red Grizzly Bears as a baseline, and he can always sacrifice himself if the body becomes too anemic.
What I Don't Like: My favorite use for sacrifice outlets is the ability to do it in response to my opponent’s actions and get incidental value where I’d otherwise be losing those cards for no value. Dark-Dweller makes it hard for me to effectively do that since it both costs mana to activate the effect AND I can’t play any of my sorcery-speed cards that might get revealed.
Verdict: Red’s 2cc creatures aren’t amazing for larger cubes, and if you play a token/recursion centric theme in the cube, Oracle isn’t a bad filler card for those kinds of decks. I might be willing to try it out in a 720 card cube if I supported multiple decks that want his effect.
Resplendent Angel
A reasonable 3-drop with a high ceiling.
What I Like: A 3-mana 3/3 flying creature is a solid baseline, and with either a dedicated lifegain strategy OR a deck that will reliable be able to active its ability, it has potential to be quite powerful. With Lyras and Baneslayers floating around, there can be situations where this can trigger on both end steps, and the card will be absurdly good.
What I Don't Like: White’s 3cc creatures are fantastic, and the hurdle to have creatures compete there is pretty hard to leap. A lot of decks won’t be able to rely on reaching 6 mana, and a lot of cubes don’t feature enough 5+ lifegain effects to reliably trigger it. And a 3-mana 3/3 flying doesn’t hack it in that slot.
Verdict: I think this card is being overvalued by a lot of cube managers out there, and I really don’t think it’s a spectacular card. I would play it in cubes that are both larger in size AND have enough lifegain support not to be forced to rely on the activated ability to make it work.
Viashino Pyromancer
A serviceable 2-drop with some guaranteed damage.
What I Like: This is functionally similar to a 2/1 with haste for 2 mana, with the upside of being unblockable the turn it’s cast. A function that was pointed out by SaucyFaucet here on MTGS. That’s not a bad baseline, considering that it also has the ability to randomly be hit by Flickerwisps and Restos for extra free reach too. It’s not particularly flashy, but it’s a solid creature. It has the advantage of guaranteeing damage when it’s a late-game topdeck that a French vanilla 2/1 haste just wouldn’t have.
What I Don't Like: This will often be nothing more than a generic 2/1 “haste” for 2 mana, which isn’t something most cube managers are dying to get into their cubes. Boring in decks that have no way to get any additional triggers from it.
Verdict: The quality of red 2cc creatures drops off relatively quickly, so I could see cubes in the 630-720 range be satisfied enough with a basic but solid filler creature to give it a go.
Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
A midrange beater that can provide a sizable discount.
What I Like: Goreclaw is a legendary bear, which is cool. And he has a splashable casting cost, and can attack as a 5-power creature with trample. But his most valuable effect is his ability to discount the cost of your other bigger creatures. It allows you to play Titan-quality creatures immediately on curve, and also provides them with additional bonuses when they attack later on. Curving from him into a 5cc Myr Battlesphere or the like will be quite strong, and I don’t think you have to a lot of build-around work in most green midrange decks to have a reasonable chance of getting at least 1 meaningful mana discount. 2-mana Flametongue Kavus and 3-mana Verdurous Gearhulks sound pretty appealing to me. Not to mention that it also buffs those creatures as well; giving +1/+1 and trample to your attacking creatures that are often weak to chump blocks.
What I Don't Like: When he’s not attacking, he just sits on the board with 3-toughness, just dying to be Bolted or Incinerated. It can be hard to justify 4cc cards that are both conditional in nature AND are that vulnerable to so many cheap removal spells.
Verdict: In my experience, the 4cc creature slot in green is pretty weak, and I could see myself wanting to try this out in a cube that’s like 630+ cards or more just to see what kind of impact the creature discount might provide for me. It can lead to some pretty explosive follow-up plays, and can be easily slotted into a variety of decks because of his splashable cost. I might test it out at 540 or so just to see what kinds of stories it can create, even if it just might be a placeholder for a future staple 4-drop.
Meteor Golem
A new Duplicant variant.
What I Like: I think this card compares favorably to other overcosted colorless removal+ effects we’ve seen out there. Golem has a powerful enters the battlefield trigger, which doesn’t need to be cast to go off. In comparison to an effect like Duplicant’s, Golem can hit any non-creature permanent. It has a static 3/3 body, which is sometimes better and sometimes worse than what you might expect from Duplicant, but for the extra 1 mana, you convert the creature removal into a non-land removal effect, which is significantly more powerful. Being able to target planeswalkers and problematic artifacts/enchantments in addition to creatures provides a ton of extra value. But where I think Golem will have a chance to shine is in decks that can abuse the fact that it’s an artifact and/or a creature, and try to flip it in and out of play to get multiple triggers. Recurring Nightmare, Mimic Vat, Feldon, Welder, Daretti… these kinds of cards will make Golem so much more than the solid but unexciting play he provides at face value and can make it into something really powerful. But even at face value, killing their planeswalker and leaving a 3/3 body behind can be worth 7 colorless mana; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played Karn in situations where he had to vindicate a clutch permanent, and the remaining loyalty just got attacked down on my opponent’s following turn. Golem can provide that kind of play as a baseline, and be ready for abuse on subsequent turns.
What I Don't Like: Face-value mode is very fair. 7 mana isn’t cheap, and without ways to abuse it, it’ll likely only make the final 40 as a backup cheat target or a 23rd playable at best.
Verdict: I love Welder/Nightmare/Feldon/Vat kinds of decks, and if I had a colorless slot that wasn’t insanely competitive to test Golem in over, I might give it a shot. I might test it at 540+, and it wouldn’t surprise me if bigger cubes that support the kinds of decks where he can shine find some permanent use for Golem in the long run. I think this one will play better than it looks at first glance.
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen
The newest version of Bolas.
What I Like: LucidVision did a good job of convincing me that this card is better than I thought it was at first glance. A 4-mana 4/4 flying Ravenous Rats is a decent enough baseline, because even if it is answered before you can transform it, it’s still going to be a 2-for-1 that provided a decent board presence. And when you do hit your 7th mana and can flip it, it’s an insanely strong card on the back. Card advantage, removal, reanimation and a game-ending ultimate. But the most important aspect of this Bolas is how valuable it is in all the situations where the other versions of him aren’t yet castable. Basically, I’d rather use the version that has the 4-mana failsafe mode built in just in case the other more expensive Bolases would just be rotting in my hand.
What I Don't Like: If your curve goes straight to 7 or 8 with no hiccups and the opponent has ample removal for the 4-mana dragon, you would’ve been better off with the harder-to-interact-with versions of Bolas.
Verdict: There’s a really good chance that this is the best Grixis card for cubes. If you play shard/wedge cards, I’d recommend giving this guy a shot and seeing if it’s better than the other options. It still gives you a bomb 7cc ‘walker to play with …it just comes with the 4cc discard dragon mode attached to it first. Occasionally a bad thing, but usually a welcome mode that may just be good enough on its own to do some winning for you while you’re waiting for that 7th mana. 540 is probably the sweet spot for mw where I’d add this in.
Graveyard Marshal
A value-grinding zombie 2-drop.
What I Like: I like that this can serve as the long-lost honorary black 5cc creature we need in a lot of curves. You can play it and activate it on the same turn, giving you 5 power across 2-bodies for 5 mana, which is better than the other options black has for fringe 5-drops. But it can also be a 3-power 2-drop when the mana allows, and it adds free value to every other creature you have die. It can be an amazing topdeck, and it can grind out wins post-sweeper when you have a stocked ‘yard.
What I Don't Like: The double-black cost will stop this from coming down on-curve a lot of the time, and it needs to go into a deck with a relatively high creature count to keep the ability live.
Verdict: The value this can provide as a later-game 2-drop is pretty high, and I like that it can generate an army of zombies for you over time. I like that it’s a secret hybrid 2cc/5cc creature, because black can honestly use the support in both of those areas. I don’t know if this is good enough to crack 450 lists, but I’d test this at 540+ and expect it to do relatively well.
Isareth the Awakener
A 3cc beater/card advantage engine.
What I Like: This reminds me a lot of Alesha. 3-power attacking creature for 3 mana with a relevant keyword that brings cheap creatures back from the dead when it attacks. Isareth has the advantage of being one color, the ability to trade up in combat, and the ability to recur creatures regardless of their size (assuming you have the mana for them). Overall, it’s a pretty powerful combination of abilities that can further utilize your ‘yard as a resource and reliably keep yourself in threats.
What I Don't Like: Alesha brings creatures back tapped and attacking, which provides more pressure than Isareth, and can return creatures with lower power and a higher CMC for cheaper. More importantly, it’s easier to make abusive creature chains with Alesha. Isareth exiles the creatures she resurrects if they die a 2nd time; that’s a significant drawback that Alesha doesn’t have. And she doesn’t trade with beast tokens in combat. Overall I think that Alesha is a bit better, but I do think that Isareth can be a solid performer, and can do quite a few things Alesha can’t do at all.
Verdict: I think Isareth’s value is definitely big game, and a 3/3 deathtouch body isn’t a bad basline. It’s hard to trade her down in combat, and she’ll trade up with anything bigger that wants to tangle with her. I’m not sure if she’d crack the more competitive creature selection in smaller cubes, but I’d definitely be testing her at 540.
Exclusion Mage
A new Man-O’-War variant.
What I Like: Man-O’-War is an awesome creature, and like 9 times out of 10, this will be the same card. As steve_man pointed out, this can be run out on an empty board if the need arises, allowing you to pressure planeswalkers and pick up equipment even if your opponent doesn’t have a creature for you to target. And, the creature type being human wizard might be important depending on what your cube composition looks like.
What I Don't Like: While Mage can be run out on an empty board, it can’t target your own creatures. I sometimes find myself wanting to buy back creatures with powerful ETB abilities or reset cards that have picked up -1/-1 counters or the like with my Man-O’-War triggera, and I lose that flexibility with Mage. That’s a slightly bigger drawback for my playgroup than for others from what I can tell, but I think I’ve bounced my own guys more times with Man-O’-War than I’ve had it stranded in my hand over the years.
Verdict: Great tempo creature. I could see this replacing Man-O’-War if you value its upside more than its drawback in comparison. Or if you’re in the market for a 2nd copy, you can just run both. That’s what I’d do in cubes that are about 540 cards or bigger.
Leonin Warleader
A new Hero of Bladehold variant.
What I Like: Warleader creates a bigger life total swing than Hero does when it attacks. Thanks to the lifelink on the tokens, the first attack creates an 8 point life swing and the 2nd swing creates a 12 point swing. It applies slightly less pressure than Hero when the board is otherwise empty, but in creature mirrors and races, the overall life swing can really matter. And, if the opponent manages to deal with the main body, the tokens it leaves behind have lifelink, which is a small but occasionally meaningful advantage.
What I Don't Like: Hero applies more pressure directly to the opponent’s life total, puts them on a faster clock and the battle cry trigger can benefit my existing board presence (if there is one). I think that puts Warleader slightly behind Hero, and not every cube will be in the market for two of these guys.
Verdict: Despite Hero likely being slightly better, I think they’re both great. I love token decks; especially when they come together entirely from cards that are good enough on their own. I think Warleader fits that description, and I’d find a way to include it alongside Hero even in cubes as small as 450+ or so.
Tezzeret, Artifice Master
A artifact-centric planeswalker.
What I Like: The new Tezz resolves with a lot of loyalty. And he can immediately tick up to {6} the turn he comes down while providing a flying blocker to protect himself with. The {+1} ability is good to develop the board with pesky evasive beaters and/or flying blockers, in addition to having it increase your artifact count. This is relevant for both an artifact.dec strategy or just to further enable his {+0} ability, which is quite good. The draw ability is strong. It can dig for gas when needed, or if you have metalcraft, it just starts drawing you 2 extra cards per turn! The ultimate ability is powerful if you can get there too, allowing you to dump free big permanents to the board every turn right from your library.
What I Don't Like: In decks with no other artifacts, it’ll likely be too hard to unlock the broken draw ability off just the {+1} alone, turning Tezz into either a 5cc Bitterblossom or a Honden of the Seeing Winds; neither being particularly impressive.
Verdict: Cuts are hard in small cubes, particularly in blue. I wanted to find a home for this in my 450 card cube, and if you’re all in on the artifact.dec, you probably should. He’s very, very good in decks loaded with artifacts. But as a face-value ‘walker that will only have marginal artifact support, it’ll likely get relegated to 540+ cubes.
Dismissive Pyromancer
A red 2cc utility beater.
What I Like: The baseline 2/2 body for 2 isn’t bad for a creature with multiple activated abilities. I like the flexibility of being able to bash for 2 when the coast is clear, and also having access to multiple activated abilities when the board becomes too congested to profitably attack. Most options in the 2cc creature slot for red get stonewalled in the same spots; the opponent plays a 2/3 or 3/3 body and attacking with your cheap creatures comes to a halt until you can clear the roadway. Pyromancer gets shut down by all the same creatures as the rest of red’s options at 2, except he at least provides you with some utility value when that happens. Can’t attack? No problem, I can rummage away excess lands and look for that removal spell I need to clear the path. Outlived the expected usefulness of a generic bear? No problem, I can cash Pyromancer in on a Flame Slash activation and clear out a problematic threat from the other side of the table. Opponent kills it with removal? Who cares, you spent 2-mana on it. I’ve heard discussion that Pyromancer just shouldn’t be played in aggro, and I have to disagree. It turns situations where my other options would’ve been dead into something that can at least provide some value, and it’s been quite solid in that role so far in testing. Not to mention the fact that the rummaging ability is useful in a variety of red decks that use the ‘yard as a resource (like Rakdos Stax, the artifact.dec and reanimator shells), and the burn spell mode is good in decks that can bring creatures back from the dead for extra value.
What I Don't Like: I really wish I didn’t have to tap the Pyromancer for the removal spell mode. And looting > rummaging. But honestly, it would’ve been too good if it was constructed in either of those two ways.
Verdict: I have been really pleased with Pyromancer in testing so far. Not sure if it would crack 360 card cubes or not, but it’s been playing well enough to be impressive at 450.
Remorseful Cleric
Another baller Mistral Charger variant.
What I Like: The floor of a 2/1 flying for 2 mana is good in aggressive color combinations. Especially when any extra value you get beyond that baseline comes free of cost. Cleric is fantastic. It will be a serviceable beater that can play in aggro decks, 2-power abuse decks, Moat shells… most every white deck that isn’t pure control. And there are just some decks that are centered around a graveyard strategy that just get hosed by Cleric. The ability to shoehorn silver bullet cards (that can be targeted by both Recruiters!) into your deck at an almost zero opportunity cost is plain bonkers. I’ve loved Selfless Spirit in the cube, and I’m stoked to give him a buddy.
What I Don't Like: It might create some feel bad moments when this resolves against your reanimator deck and just colds your entire strategy …but that’s only fair considering you’re trying to put a T2/3 Griselbrand onto the table, and that’s not exactly fair either.
Verdict: I can’t imagine not wanting to cube this card. Unless you have no cards in the cube that interact with graveyards, I’d play this card even at 360.
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to comment below. Cheers, and happy cubing.
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This looks like a pretty good set for a lot of cube managers. I've found a bunch of cards I'll be adding to my cubes.
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How do you like the new Tezz versus the old 5cmc Tezzeret the Seeker? I'm working towards supporting the artifact deck in my 360 unpowered. Would you recommend one over the other or even both if I could find room? I'm not running Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas because The Scarab God and Baleful Strix seem to good to cut. But I am tempted to add the Dimir Tezz.
Or do you think it's foolhardy to pursue an artifact deck archetype in 360 unpowered since slots are so precious?
I was surprised by the high rank of Dismissive Pyromancer. But as to your point, the sheer versatiliy is quite unique to red. Perhaps I want to put it in so Red is not just an “attack and burn” strategy. (Though technically, it will just still enable finding burn spells or clear the field to attack)
At least it gived red more depth.
And again, thank you for the cube review. As always, both entertaining and thought provoking.
And as a person who does not have time to play let alone playtest cube, I truly appreciate all the sharing.
Surprised you ranked dismissive pyromancer as high as you did, but I don't disagree... No idea how good it will be , but I'm excited to find out. Such a cool card!
Also you convinced me that meteor golem is very close to cubeable at medium sizes.. passed over the card completly, but I realize there are many good artifact interactions that make it pretty great in an artifact deck that can recur creatures.
Kind of an artifact.dec only card though, and those slots are getting more and more competitive as time goes by.
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I think OG Tezz is z bit better, because he can tutor up clutch artifacts and untap mana rocks to cast big-mana cards. In addition to having an ultimate that can win games in certain spots that is available as early as the next turn.
But you may not be able to get the saturation you need to make the artifact.dec work in an unpowered 360 because of the competition.
'But if you do, play the Dimir Tezz. It's bonkers in that deck.
Oyromancer's high rank says more about red's 2's than it does about the Pyromancer itself. But ya, the card has been performing decently enough in testing so far.
Glad you enjoyed the article!
Ya, Pyromancer is slightly above-average in a sea of average options. It's not one of the best cards in the set, but it may turn out to be one of the best cube cards in the set because it's a solid playable option in a slot that isn't particularly competitive.
And Golem is a cool card. It needs a deck that can take advantage of it in order to make it worthwhile, but I don't think that'll be too hard to do.
I think it is, yes. I didn't at first, but after seeing it in action while testing it for this article, it was very good.
I think both of these 2-drops are pretty decent options.
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I have not givenMeteor Golem even the faintest consideration as an option in my 540. It probably is good enough to make several different decks but it feels so darn fair that I doubt it would see much maindeck play in my group. Interesting to think about at the very least.
I like that Marshal can function as a secret 5-drop.
And Golem is a really fair card. It'll be solid enough, but it's not super impressive. Players will be less interested in it because it's not flashy, even if it would otherwise be a solid performer. The maindeckability will suffer because of that, I agree.
Pyromancer is one of those cards that played better for me than it looked on paper. I found both of his activated abilities to be useful in the face of opposing blockers; when any other piker or bear that might be in his slot would be unable to do anything. There's value in that. And, he's been very solid in reanimator, Loam shells & the artifact.dec as a discard outlet, and in Recruiter/'Lark decks as recurring removal.
Luckily the new Bolas is both.
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I think it's interesting that the shoo in at 360 is the innocuous looking Remorseful Cleric. It is true that the cube is pretty starved for playable cards with incidental graveyard hate. Withered Wretch and Nezumi Graverobber are about as good as we've had outside of narrow hosers like Relic of Progenitus. I'm sure I won't, but I could actually see playing two copies of Remorseful Cleric, as the redundancy isn't really there.
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It's going to be a surprising and big change to the cube.
Ya, Golem is cool and I like him.
Graveyard hate is hard to come by, and if you can get it strapped to an otherwise playable card, that's awesome.
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To that end, what would you cut for Vivirn, Freyalise or 5-mana Garruk?
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I think Freyalise would be my cut, since it's a more like-for-like trade.
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The Remoserful Cleric is great. 2 drops in white are all ok but not great, and I want more flyers. But most importantly I wanted another piece of graveyard hate strapped to a useful card. Hell I just put stonecloaker in, so easy 31 for my cube.
Dismissive Pyromancer has performed well where I have seen it so for, and outside of Young Pyromancer and Kari Zev I am not overly attached to my red 2 drops. It adds another piece of reanimator support to red, which I very much enjoy.
Grave Marshal will fit the bill as an honorary 5 drop for me and sometimes hit on 2. Not sure how long it will stick but I keep toying with adding full tribal zombie support and we are getting very close.
Meteor Golem is the only other I am still thinking about. Need to keep one handy as maybe a tinker target, possibly as a replacement for duplicant. Also love it in any Daretti or Mimic Vat deck. 7 is a lot but that is as sexy an etb as you will find.
Bolas is a maybe because he is so good. I haven't really gotten as much Kess time as I would like but I think my group would like Bolas more.....
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I really dig the analysis of Grave Marshal as a 5-mana play. Definitely going into my graveyard cube, whenever I finally get around to it.
I'm perpetually testing new red 2-drops, and now I'm staring at two I really like
This is still the best place for high-power-level cube chat & debate.
Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
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Now that we've had a lot of time to play with the set, I'd say that in hindsight, the low rating of Vivien Reid and the fact that Dryad Greenseeker didn't make the list seem the be the biggest things I would disagree with.
Vivien is generally alot better than Acidic Slime for example, which is a cube staple. I'd say Slime is only more powerful in cubes that run ridiculously strong lands like Tolarian Academy, Gaea's Cradle, Maze of Ith, Library of Alexandria, etc. and even then, their power level is very similar. She compares very well to other green planeswalkers as well in my experience. She's played great with my playgroup. I feel like she could have placed as high as 6th on this list.
Dryad Greenseeker is a 2 drop that is comparable to Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya, and that alone should have placed it in the top 20. I feel like it could have have been placed as high as the 9-13 region on this list.
Thanks for making all of these reviews, wtwlf123!
Greenseeker is okay, but I don't think it competes with the better green 2-drops in the cube, and I certainly wouldn't place it with Courser or Oracle.
And this:
I disagree with wholeheartedly. I don't think they're even close, and I think Slime is miles better. Destroying lands is everything. Not just broken lands, but any land is fine. It's more consistently card advantage because it's always worth 2 cards, and it's an ETB effect strapped to a a 2/2 body, so it's abuseable with bounce/flicker/clone effects and the like. Slime >>>>>>>>>> Vivien.
Cheers, and happy cubing.
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