MTG Salvation

Great article and I think this time you published it in record time!

Initially I am only looking at Prismatic Command but now looking at Rip Apart as well. Versatile cards are never bad in cube.

I am lukewarm on Sedgemoor Witch at 450 because I like Woe Strider more due to a token, sac outlet, and recursion into a larger creature (plus another token). It seems more aligned with what black is doing.

For Baleful Mastery, Not a fan of the “reverse cantrip” 2 mana mode. But yeah, if cheap will probably replace Hearless Act. So it happened that all black spot removal kills planeswalkers too.

Thanks again for the nice read and insights!

So Far I am liking the cards in retro frame. The cards they chose have art tbat fits the old frame. They really do feel like old magic cards.

Nice to know that they are removing that useless plastic trash. This is a great move and hopefully towards a trash free packaging in which everything can ve reused as a deck box or even just a simple card storage box.

While I love the masterpiece art,
Specifically for demonic tutor I still like the old school white border revised feel. But looking forward to these for cube.

I dunno.. spell half MDFC, a praetor, level up, wizards. Seems to me that these are the top speculations. Not disproving it of couse, but nothing leaked that is surprising or at least something not obvious to guess.

Pics will make it more convincing. I mean is it not easier to post a pic than to type all these text? No access to camera? Really?

Love the Ponder and Cultivate, but I already have the full art cultivate.

Not a fan of Teferi art as it feels too Disney for me. It does not feel like a PW art too as the focus is not on him, feels like an art direction mismatch.

Will probably pass on this set and if I get lucky try to get the Ponder as a single.

Quote from Grixh »

Quote from FlossedBeaver »

Did you guys read Maro's response? Strixhaven is "not just a reskinning of any one version," which leaves it fairly open to borrow from any number of sources. Just like every other set.

Yeah, not sure where people are getting "there will be zero Harry Potter references" from.

My guess: it's an instants and sorceries matter set. This has been described by MaRo as a difficult concept due to needing a certain volume of creatures for a set to work, but was possibly solved by MDFCs with instants and sorceries on the back of creatures.

My other, way more farfetched guess: the plane it's on is Vryn, which has a specific need for a lot of mages.

You are on to something.

ZNR was land/X and KLD was god/permenent. Spell/creature is one missing combination. Perhaps the theme is : either you summon your teacher or you learned the spell form him/her. And that inspired the school theme, maybe?

It may be a Magic version of school tropes, and not necessarily from Magic School tropes. So not necessarily Horcruxes or Dark Lords but definitely MTG versions of Potions or Herbology. A Xmen Danger Room, perhaps? Quidditch?

(Sorry double post)

Great Review!

I thought that you might have a hard time filling in 20, but the set still has a lot to offer for medium cubes.

I agree with you on the missed opportunity on the “sorcery” lands. They could be replacement for some of the weaker man lands if they fix mana as well. Perhaps in another set, they will make a rare cycle.

It is interesting to know that the top 4 colored cards are white; and for pauper, blue gets 3 new solid options as well.

I wanted to put Vorinclex in my artifact cube, but I agree that it suffers from the enabler coming in too late. At 6cc, it costs way too more than the cards it should be enabling. I might test it over doubling season for a while but I feel it will just be a big dumb beater with an ability that won’t matter much given the clock. Man, I wish he costed 4 so he can curve out with Verdurous Gearhulk at least!!!

Esika’s Chariot is something I appreciate for green in my artifact cube. Token generation and payoff, plus an artifact/vehicle.

Halvar is interesting as a creature/euipment choice depending on what you need, but I really hate the “vanilla creature mode” on an empty board. Still, that is better than an equipment that will be useless. Even though it is annoying that it can’t be tutored with Stoneforge Mystic, I am still going to try it in my artifact cube, and will likely stick.

I view Starnheim Unleashed and Doomskar as a “Fortell Package” and they seem to be OK for 450 cubes, but personally I am sticking with the 4 mana Shatter the Sky, pushing these out from my 450.

That leaves User the Fallen as my sole include for my 450 unpowered. Your asessment pretty much hits it dead center. It is one of the best one drops in cube.

Thanks again for the article!

Wow What a great read! I actually have read a couple and will definitely come back for the rest!

Ultimately snow is a mechanic too linear for a cube.

The only thing it has going is snow basics, so when evaluating snow cards, you can approximate by snow=basics. Personally I wint change my basics to snow just for a few cards that can easily be out powered by non snow cards in the next sets.

I am hoping that we can get 1 powerful snow creature to have that chilly frame in cube

this is great in limited. stat to cost ratio is great plus trample. The ability is nice too although you have to be more careful with it than something like Akoum Stonewaker

After a bit of testing, this guy is better than I expected. He is a good early game threat alongside other aggro drops and the 2nd toughness is nice for a black two drop. I think he's inferior to Blood Scrivener (at least with our really low curve in black), but seeing as black is not very well endowed with two-drops, I like him enough to stick around. I don't think he'll draw quite a card a game on average, but there will be times you can stick equipment on him and profit, and he can trade with the average creature of his cost.

6/10, makes the cut for now.

Also, Dark Confidant, Blood Scrivener and Pain Seer are now known as the Bobfecta around these parts.