MTG Salvation

Black Market Connections
Enchantment

At the beginning of your precombat main phase, choose one or more -
· Sell Contraband - Create a Treasure token. You lose 1 life.
· Buy Information - Draw a card. You lose 2 life.
· Hire a Mercenary - Create a 3/2 colorless Shapeshifter creature token with changeling. You lose 3 life.

Pseudo Black Market Tycoon+Phyrexian Arena+Bitterblossom, all wrapped up in one. While the mana cost isn't particularly steep, the life loss is unpreventable and much steeper than it's previously mentioned contemporaries. With that said, the value is immense, and the card pays for itself almost immediately, both in terms of mana and cards. Card looks very versatile, and while it will almost always get sideboarded out vs aggressive decks, I could see this get played in aggressive decks, midrange decks, a variety of combo decks, and even some control decks in matchups where they might need some acceleration and card draw.

Also worth noting, you get to pick your poisons after already drawing your first card for the turn, allowing you to make a more informed decision. The card does suffer from being a pretty middling topdeck, especially when behind. I do personally really like that you can cast your off color 7-drop fatties on turn 5 in reanimator decks with this card as a backup plan, and that it's castable on turn 2 off of a mana dork. Definitely a test for us.

Card looks amazing imo. Favorite card in a while.

I agree with everything Steve_Man said, but it should also be mentioned that with even just 2 or 3 discards from another source, like a Liliana of the Veil or a Smuggler's Copter, this thing can actually represent a huge amount of stats for cheap, even pretty early in the game for fair decks. The fact that a cheap, colorless looter can also represent mana acceleration towards a big Living Death or Moat OR an army of 2/2 tokens is unreal. This can absolutely be a tangible win condition in the right circumstances. Gives me serious Jace, Vryn's Prodigy vibes.

Maybe I'm underestimating the inconvenience of that 2cmc activation cost, but I'm having trouble seeing this as anything short of fantastic. It can go in so many decks and be good, even without all the cute (but super easily utilized) synergies.

Quote from Blue_Oneironaut »

I've been dissatisfied with my dimir section for some time, and I think this makes a good candidate for testing. I think it's well-positioned for control decks especially - you may be on a Show & Tell or reanimator plan, or any strategy that tries to grind down the early game and then win with a humongous threat ... why not have a 2/4 for 3 (IMO excellent stats for these colors and cost) that can give you a little redundancy and smoothen out your plans?

Although, I guess even if that holds up, this card will still probably not be for everyone. I know some folks like more general-use application in their guilds and apart from this scenario I'm describing, it definitely seems very mediocre and perhaps "too fair".

I'm in the same boat. As it stands, the only Dimir card we've ever had be genuinely good has been Strix, and we've gone through more dimir cards than I can count. The new looter PW looks pretty versatile so I think he could stick around, but otherwise stuff like Hostage Taker, Dragonlord Silumgar, Tyrant's Scorn, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, etc have all been disappointing, mostly by nature of just either not being useful in UB decks or for just not ever being worth the splash. Although a 3 mana 2/4 with an overpriced ability doesn't sound the best on paper, this is an effect that UB reanimator decks can actually play and that other cheaty decks might actually find value in splashing for. Idk if this has any decent fair-deck applications though, since I don't think most decks are interested in paying 4 mana to bounce their own stuff just to expedite a 5 drop. I don't love it, but at least it fits a defined role and does something more interesting for the combo decks than cards like Lim-Dul's Vault/Discovery // Dispersal/Diabolic Vision.

With that said I think it's probably too expensive to stick around long term, but the playgroup might still be down to test this (assuming we don't get more interesting UB cards in the set).

Also important to note that with the recent printings of Occult Epiphany/Suspicious Stowaway/Kaito Shizuki, there's definitely been a recent spike in evasive reanimator cards to help enable this guy alongside the likes of classics like Baleful Strix/Looter il-Kor/Kitesail Freebooter/etc (although Kaito doesn't really work on curve).

Just drafted with the new cards, and I have some high praise for this. The person who drafted it was playing a UW control deck, and the card was really great. Throughout the early game it's good for blocking, and once you hit like x>2 the stats get really good for flash flyers strapped to loots. It kills attackers, plansewalkers, and even players once you hit like x=3 or 4, it really doesn't take that much mana to make an impact. We were all already super impressed, and it was made even better as a win condition that you could tutor off of Spellseeker and Mystical Tutor and flashback off of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in the mid to lategame. If you're on the fence, I'd really recommend you try it. It's a small sample size, but this has greatly overpreformed my expectations to say the least, and I already thought it was going to be pretty good.

Cemetery Prowler

Creature - Wolf
Vigilance

Whenever Cemetery Prowler enters the battlefield or attacks, exile a card from a graveyard.
Spells you cast cost less to cast for each card type they share with cards exiled with Cemetery Prowler.

Could be cool in decks high in specifics card types, like UG is with creatures and instants or GW is with creatures and more creatures. Cheating mana is historically very strong, and the statine on this creature is quite large for its cost. With that said, it requires jumping through a couple hoops to get those mana discounts, and doesn't always have the opportunity to exile what you want. How much mana reduction does this typically need to provide in order to be a good cube card? And is the statline good enough to make this not a bad topdeck?

Forgot about this thread, but I guess we have some new cards I haven't seen others play since the last time I posted here. This is gonna be a long one...

First and foremost, Angel of the Ruins is amazing. The card sees so much play in so many decks, it's honestly incredible. Reanimator, Control, Oath of Druids, Artifact Ramp, fair Recurring Nightmare decks, the card is everywhere. It even fixes mana off of dual lands! Can't recommend this card enough, it's everything I wanted Emeria's Call to be and so much more.

Most cubes I see on here also don't play Plague Engineer which is baffling to me, because we've been playing it for well over 2 years now and that card is absolutely stellar, imo the second best black 3 drop after Rotting Regisaur. Whether it's in aggro, control, midrange, or even the slower reanimator decks, the card gets maindecked in everything. The same way an early Deranged Hermit can single-handedly win you a bunch of aggro matchups, Plague Engineer oftentimes does the same for 3 mana, except it is also one of the best cards available in aggro decks for wiping away your opponents' wide blocking token boards. It's great defensively and has a ton of applications aggressively too, and before anyone mentions that it's only goo din fair matchups, that hasn't been the case either. The card blocks everything well, and can trade with most fatties while cleaning up Myr Battlesphere and Hornet Queen tokens. I promise that card plays soooo much better than it looks, singleton format be damned. Should also mention that it just annihilates green decks of the Elf subtype and white off of Humans, and completely erases all the red 3cmc token producers from combat. The worst case scenario is a 2/2 with deathtoutch for 3 that "pings" something, a debuff that oftentimes lets one of your 2/2s or 3/3s trade up.

I remember bringing up Bomat Courier in the Cube-Card-of-the-Day thread a few years back encouraging others to test it, and I think a bunch of people did but then proceeded to cut it. I'm sure there's good reason for that, but in my playgroup's experience Bomat has been arguably red's second or third best 1 drop prior to Ragavan's printing. It constantly accounts for 2-4 dmage and 3-5 cards for 1-2 measly mana, and is even castable on turn one off of off-color moxen/mana crypt/sol ring which is not a menial upside. I have less to say for this card since its extensive standard dominance and occasional legacy showings already display the play patterns for the card, but just know that the little guy definitely finds it's way into all sorts of aggro and midrange decks, even off of splashes.

Beast Within and Song of the Dryads have been great too. I think people used to play them but cut them for space over the years, but tbh they've only gotten better as PWs and fatties have gotten more and more pushed over the years. Beast Within especially is certainly the better of the two, and makes its way into almost all our green decks, even in aggro and ramp. I'd put it in Council's Judgement territory without batting an eye, with Song a step below all the Oblivion Ring variants but still more than playable, especially in green.

For multicolor, we play all the obvious stuff, but Klothys, God of Destiny has been absurd. It goes in everything, gets splashed constantly, takes over games when it hits the board, and fills every niche you could want in draft and deckbuilding. Gruul is a solid color combination, and I'd vouch for Klothys as the easy #2 behind only Atarka.

Nahiri, the Harbinger isn't actually that great, but she's certainly playable and gets about as much millage as Figure of Destiny in our cube by nature of uniqueness alone. If you don't play her, no harm no foul, but I'd definitely give her a shot because people love to splash for her in all kinds of decks. Control, renaimator, Sneak Attack, Oath, etc can all get fatties off the top-end to win the game, and shes the kind of card that just gets the gears turning for people. If you have a Boros flex slot available that you're just using to test new cards, I'd highly recommend her.

I've mentioned Glare of Subdual before, and I'm not going to go into a whole spiel again, but it's been bar none the best Selesnya card in our cube for like 5 years straight now and it hasn't been particularly close either. It's just as dominant as Opposition vs everything except exactly control, and turns out like 80% of opposition is still ridiculous. Card just shuts down like 80% of other cube decks.

Ugin, the Ineffable has been a colorless Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and isn't going anywhere any time soon. Goes in Control, all the ramp decks, Channel decks, and even some midrange decks. The static ability is super relevant in ramp decks, especially if you play Eldrazi titans, and the card advantage it creates gets out of control insanely fast. It's been leagues better than Karn Liberated for us by comparison, and is without a doubt a premier 6 drop in our cube.

Sawtusk Demolisher has been some pretty stellar agressive/midrange top end for us so far. Has received substantially less extensive testing (just 2 or 3 months now since mutate wasn't on XMage) than every other non-Angel card I've listed so far, but a splashable pseudo-Demon of Catastrophes with haste and a Terrastodon proc has been really good for us so far. Again, by far the least testing of anything I've mentioned so far as most of the cards I'm bringing up have been in our cube for several years, but looks like it's gonna stick around for a while.

Component Pouch has only been in for 5 (I think?) drafts so far over Worn Powerstone, and has already blown away expectations. The card sees play in control and midrange decks all the time a-la pseudo-Coalition Relic, and the fixing has been invaluable. If you aren't comfortable with that swap, I'd at least recommend trying the Pouch in a different slot, as I am confidant that it has got to be better than something. Card deserves a fair shot, goofy die-rolling and counters aside.

And finally I know I've been mentioned her a million times before, but Arcane Artisan is amazing, and it amazes me that there are still cubes that support reanimator/show and tell/sneak attack/Oath of Druids (aka most cubes on here) that don't play it. It's a one-card combo enabler that gets around removal off the EOT activation, and can even loot for value in the late game.

And I think that's everything, whew now I need to go get dinner

Eh idk, I think this is pretty mediocre. Goblin Dark Dwellers was pretty bad for us, and going over our cube we only have like 20 good hits with this card. A 2/2 for 2 with haste isn't a bad floor, but I think the inconstant ceiling is just to weak to justify a card like this at 360. I specifically like Dire Fleet Daredevil a lot more since its usually a lot cheaper.

Thank god lmao I was honestly pissed

Quote from armando.zuffi »

Great black super fattie !!

Honestly, I'm thinking cut Griselbrand for it due to this card being more synergic in other archetypes as ramp.dec, or control.dec. Also, this is better against removals if I'd be few life points.

To each there own, but I'd really consider keeping Griselbrand around, he's been the best fatty in our cube by mile since he got printed and has been fantastic against removal. Neither of these cards is likely going to get ramped out so I don't think the casting cost differences are really going to be dealbreakers in playrate

Besides that, love this new guy and I think it looks fantastic too. Can't wait to try it out, and will easily find a slot for us at 360 for our reanimator decks and through the breach/sneak attack decks.

Card can be tough topdeck, but on turns 1 through 3 I can see this absolutely taking over a game, and especially with equipment this certainly can scale into the late game. Definitely intrigued, and will certainly test this.

And to everybody saying this needed more stats, that would make this creature absolutely ridiculous lol

Quote from Blue_Oneironaut »

Quote from NotScottMescudi »

Thank god lmao I was honestly pissed

Sorry about that. I should maybe learn how to play this game sometime

They've worded this ability like 16 different ways over the years, and we've learned that unless there's a may you have to do it, so it's easy to misread this one. Why they've forgone may just to save 4 characters in the text box is beyond me.

A Comprehensive List of Cube Archetypes

WARNING: This article is really, really long. But I hope it will be inspiring for those who read it, and that everyone who reads this changes at least one card in their Cube lists due to an idea they got from this article. Comments, criticism and corrections are of course very welcome.

Quote from steve_man »

I think people over-fantasize what their gold section should be. Gold cards are just an extension of what XY color combination can do, I think people put too much weight in them being reasons to go into XY color combination / signposts when that responsibility can fall to any card(s). I've never heard of drafters say "gee, I wish these gold cards were more flashy and fun!" I see that as an issue that cube designers make up in their head that no players actually would ever think about.

I dunno, there was a time when my Golgari section was, like, decay, pulse, deed, and putrefy, and people definitely noticed and talked about it.

And even if it IS something just cube designers worry about, well, it's my cube! I want to have cards in it I like and find fun! It's not like the group is gonna notice that the guild sections are not all the most powerful removal spells either.

Quote from JuiceBOX »

I do expect folks to double down on their stance after testing these cards, and not because they are actually any good, but because it is easy for them to feel they were right when they have the ability to confirm their own thoughts without disproving the naysayers.

Yikes. That's a take.

This card is too low impact for me. When you play this its usually only going to net you 1 or 2 cards since you'd probably be playing better things if you had more cards in hand. I suppose its specifically good in blue big mana decks but that's not really an archetype I go out of my way to support. I think I'd rather have Castle Vantress in most situations. Not impacting the board is a big problem for this card and makes it much, much worse than the other bolt lands.

Rotting Regisaur is amazing. Unbelievably strong, in my opinion actually. It is one of the best creatures for reanimator-decks, since it creates a must-answer threat while setting up your gameplan. It is a bomb ahead of curve, lines up perfectly with your gameplan and is splashable. I think it is one of the best creatures we have.

I don't even agree this card is overcosted at all. It's a 3/2. With flash. And it has a Fork stapled to it. For 3 mana. And it's a hybrid.

Crazy, crazy card.

This is a pretty powerful card, damn.

Unfortunately, I think I am going to skip it. I enjoy that it is 2GG. But I think the 4 drops I want in a midrange green decks are just better than this card upon my 2nd or 3rd evaluation of this. Definitely an add to the Ondeck binder.

I feel like this reads better than it plays - It is just too many marginal negatives. Playing it on curve will in some shells not be that good. The exile clause is essentially flavour text. I just feel you'll end up too many times wanting to discard a land and then you get very little value. Maybe it will be good enough in kiki-shells and Welder decks.