MTG Salvation

I'm excited to play the Moth, then following up with a Deranged Hermit/Deep Forest Hermit.

Yep, I played it in a UW Control shell. Card was great, dealt with problematic permanents while also generating 2/2s each turn was very valuable. Once I traded away one of the 2/2s, got the facedown card back, and Venser-bounced another spell coming down. I love the versatility of the card, and it's a great finisher to have on 6.

Quote from Fredo »

Giving lifelink to angels can be pretty disgusting - for those who didn't think of that, lifelink can be triggered multiple times.

Lifelink is a static ability, and multiple instances of lifelink on the same object are redundant.

Much like the Conspiracy sets, stores aren't rushing to open product, meaning foil mythics of this set are going to be expensive; this, coupled with the fact that Urza is the most iconic Magic character ever printed means there is a large casual demand for this card.

I myself got a copy for ~70 USD, and I'm going to test him in my list with the caveat that players can simply choose whichever ability they want rather than pray to the RNG gods.

Got this for myself as a birthday gift

Lancers continues to impress; this week it was in a White/Blue tempo/token deck, and between the legendary creatures and planeswalkers it had access to 7 targets. If memory serves, the targets were Kytheon, Geist of Saint Traft, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Ajani Goldmane, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, and Heart of Kiran.

I ran Thalia's Lancers in 3 Cube drafts today using the new Planeswalker rule. So far, it has been very impressive. Numbers-wise, Lancers now has 72 targets in my 450 list, which is quite a decent amount. Play-wise, the feedback I got was that Lancers was a decent-sized body as a 4/4, and the first strike helps to defend whatever planeswalker the player searches up for. The flexibility Lancer affords is great, and I've seen it grab Gideon Jura if the player wanted to turtle up, a Garruk Relentless if the player wanted to gum up the board or fight an opposing utility creature, and also an Elesh Norn if the mana was available. All in all, very positive results.

Proxied up the HOU cards and tested them. Here are my results:

Nicol Bolas, the God-Pharoah: Fine 7-drop planeswalker,but has the same weakness as Karn in that it can't deal with an opposing swarm of creatures. It was cast several times, and the most common modes used were the Mind Rot +1 and the deal 7 -4. Decent enough results, will continue to test

Abrade: sat in the sideboards twice, when asked why the players replied that they would rather have a burn spell that hits face. Kind of unexpected, because Abrade struck me as a card that is 100% maindeckable given its modal nature. Will continue testing

Ramunap Excavator: This guy was in a deck with Strip Mine, functioning the same as Crucible, tested as expected

Adorned Pouncer: Never eternalized, but the player who had it said it was decent enough, but wish he had more equipment to make use of the double strike. Will continue testing

The Scarab God: Great threat, the times it was removed only meant delaying the inevitable. Managed to Eternalize a Grave Titan and other large threats that the U/B player killed. Will continue testing, but positive results so far

The original Bolas is only 1 loyalty away from the new one if they both uptick, and both sit at 3 if they downtick. The OG Bolas can also start nuking lands at parity or ahead and achieve the ultimate in 2 turns for a Cruel Ultimatum, which should be more than enough to win the game. I can't think of a situation where I'd prefer the new one to the old other than it being slightly easier to cast.

Building a cube doesn't have to cost a fortune. When I first built my own cube out of draft leftovers another user was kind enough to post a list on my cube thread of budget cube staples. I found this incredibly helpful in upgrading the power level of my cube without breaking the bank as I was first starting out, as 40 good cards that cost $.50 each will have a much bigger impact on the cubing experience than a single card that costs $20. That list is a bit dated now due to power creep and price fluctuations, so I've decided to update it to include some of the top notch cheap cube cards that have come out more recently to help newer cube owners have a starting point/shopping list for cards.

All of the cards on this list are cards that I've either seen in multiple MTGS users' lists, the latest Power Rankings (but only the top 5 of each guild, and the #1 card from each tri-color category), or the Cubetutor 360 average cube list (http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/492), and they all have at least one tournament legal edition available that costs less than $2 USD based on current TCG Mid pricing. In fact, the overwhelming majority cost less than $1, and at least half are less than $.50. I think it's fair to say that all of these cards are cube staples, or are close enough to be worth a serious look as budget alternatives for some of the more expensive staples. These cards aren't just cheap, they've beaten out some tough competition to earn slots in many of the tightest cube lists in the cube community, so I'm happy to recommend them as good value that should be efficient, powerful, and/or versatile enough to be worth a slot in your cube for years to come.

This list is an ongoing project intended to be a resource for new and cash-strapped cube managers. As new cards and reprints come out, new archetypes emerge, and card prices fluctuate I appreciate any suggestions for new cards for inclusion as well as cuts of any cards that no longer belong on this list.


















I've done my best to err on the side of inclusiveness, but feel free to suggest any other solid budget cube cards I may have missed.

One last tip for anyone cubing on a budget: I am only listing tournament-legal versions of cards here, but if that's not a hard requirement for you, you might consider World Championship Edition versions of cards. They're WOTC printed MTG cards, but with non-standard backs that are made for casual-only play. WCE cards have gold borders on the front, and keep in mind that because the backs are different, don't buy these unless you're using opaque sleeves. Nevertheless, this is a way to get some older cube staples at a fraction the price of their tournament-legal counterparts. I wouldn't be running Wasteland, Rishadan Port, Force of Will, or Survival of the Fittest without these.

Some testing (Only three cards, but they all ended up in the same deck, jund midrange):

-Jadelight Ranger was pretty inconsistent. Drawing 2 lands seemed a lot better than exploring 1-2 times, and exploring once felt better than twice, but if you switched the spots up a bit I would have different impressions. Leads me to believe it's not a cube card as that type of inconsistency is no bueno.

-Direfleet Daredevil was inconsistent, but in a better way as the ceiling was higher and pretty great for a 2 drop. There was one game where it was played on curve in a matchup where that deck was the beatdown, and it was fine in that specific spot, and in a few cases it flashed back spells. It definitely seemed borderline-awful to play it on curve, but it seemed worse to do nothing t2 so it was nice to have that option and not feel awful playing a piker like you would with snapcaster in that spot. I don't think this card is 360 material as it's too inconsistent game to game, but I could see running it there too because it's a real ceiling.

-If you know how nekrataal plays, chupacabra is better. First strike is real and the chup sat out of some combat situations where nekrataal would ball out, but the UB match up really illustrated how much better it is to have murder and not terror on a stick. In fact, there was one point where chupacabra was played into a board where the opponent had a black creature and the chupaowner had a nonblack creature, pretty telling to have that happen on the first night. EDIT: Note that we burn draft with small groups, so it's easily possible for a color to be shared in a 2-3 person draft, so it might be more negligible if your starting pool is small in relation to the number of players.

Probably immediately taking out Jadelight Ranger, but I'm pretty happy with the other two. And, honestly, I'm kinda alright having a down year for cube, it's hard enough finding 10 cuts each set that I could use a break with that!

It's also got the Nahiri "you're dead in 2 turns" threat that I think people are underestimating. Play this and uptick, uptick, ultimate and attack with your menace creatures.

It's probably better than Garruk Apex Predator and comparable to 6 mana Sorin in a slightly weaker guild.

Quote from Chained to Life »

Anyone have more experiences to share?

I saw this in the last draft I had, someone playing some kind of 4C zoo-ish deck vs GB midrange (who had new Emrakul.)

GB plays Emrakul. Steals opponent's turn.
Uses Garruk, the Veil-Cursed's -1 ability (with 1 loyalty, so it died) to sacrifice new Thalia (that had a Rancor) to get a Qasali Pridemage, to kill their own Batterskull.
Rancor enchanted Emrakul.

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Quote from Chained to Life »

I run a 450, and have tested this Nissa extensively. I am very, very happy with her in the 3-drop section. She often comes down on turn 2 because of mana dorks, and her suite of abilities, while seemingly innocuous, result in a great investment for such a low casting cost. Her 0/1 Plant tokens serve to protect her, the +1/+1 counters are great for G/x midrange decks aiming to go wide, and I've seen her use the ultimate several times. I'm satisfied she'll be in my Cube for a while to come.

Echoing this sentiment. Baby Nissa is a very good deal for 3 mana considering her abilities and various synergies. Ever see her in play with this adorable guy? Talk about getting 'hoofed...

I'm not convinced by this. 4 counters is alot. IMO it leads to bad drafting habits; i.e. trying to get this to work like it's plan A, and when you don't have it you fall short. It's also a combination of turns/spell dependent. In other words, good cards allow you to play normal magic. I mean, does one pick a 2mana 0/4 "vanilla" wall that highly in the first place? Do you always treat it like a 0/4? And when it's removed do you simply shrug and move on? Or does the plan simply fall apart when it's gone?

The argument of course, is mainly for a mainstream, spiky, cube.

But if your cube is all mumbo jumbo johnny-gets-to-magic, then go for it.

Mind Sculpter > Vryn's Prodigy > Architect of thought >= Beleren > Memory Adept > Unraveler >> Living Guildpact

Quote from wtwlf123 »

Quote from spairy »

I also still have no clue why people count Cackler in their Rakdos section.

Because it's a black and red card that gets played independently in both black and red decks that's ideal in a Rakdos aggro deck. I still have no clue why people count Cackler as anything other than a Rakdos card.

Except that it doesn't incentivize Rakdos because it's usually going to be played in a deck that isn't Rakdos and doesn't have the other color of mana. Meaanwhile, the other guilds get actual gold cards that reward you for playing that specific two colors of mana.

Nice pickups Chained! Those Expeditions are so nice /drool.

Just got word that my latest alters from Modfly have been completed... behold the OG Might MORPHin' Power Rangers