Honestly, I don't think this looks great, but Agadeem's Awakening has been so disappointing that I'd be happy to try this out as another aggro beater and token-producer in black instead. Just the possibility of being a decent aggro threat, a midrange token producer, and a possible UB control payoff excites me enough that I think this is worth the test. Black 3s are good but they certainly aren't stacked enough not to test this
Always looking for more good fatties, and this one can be reanimated, Tinkered, Channeled, Sneak Attacked, Oath of Druids-ed, and lastly cast in ramp decks. Card looks a little worse than Ancient Stone Idol, but that card is awesome so I can't wait to try this. Seems like a snap inclusion imo
Card seems alright, but I'm not a fan. Just seems less versatile than all the token producing 3cmc creatures and Bonecrusher Giant, or as unique as (although we don't play it) Feldon of the third Path imo, and even Imperial Recruiter depending on your cube. Conditional "card draw" is usually much worse than it looks in my experience, and getting +1/+1 every turn is really not that much. The powerlevel is fine but I don't think it ultimately makes the maindeck in most midrange decks, and I don't think it's good or unique enough to be played for only its aggro application. in smaller cubes. I think I'll pass
Elite Spellbinder -
Creature - Human Cleric
Flying
When Elite Spellbinder enters the battlefield, look at target opponent's hand. You may exile a nonland card from it. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast this way costs more to cast.
3/1
Hand attack in white that can disrupt the curve pre-armageddon seems really strong for aggro decks, not to mention its a good flicker target and comes strapped to a good clock and a strong flying body. Its super splashable, can be tutored with Recruiter of the Guard, and is even a Human for the cubes that care about that kind of thing. ETB doesn't work great as a late game topdeck, but the body should ideally help make up for that
Can't wait to test this guy, looks really strong imo.
I like the red side better, but the white side seems good too. Looters are super versatile, so this might actually break the threshold for a test in Boros over something like Ajani Vengeant, another card we play for its versatility.
First 4 are fantastic, but we still play Mauler and he's still the fifth best red 2 imo. Card curves great into red 3s and operates as a pseudo 3/4/5 curve topper for aggro decks. Definitely better than Earthshaker Khenra at least, but I can't say I've tried Robber of the Rich in cube by comparison, but I have played it in standard and been generally unimpressed with it.,
Next time we draft I'll probably ask about bringing Embereth Shieldbreaker back in place of Shrine or Khenra if I can remember to, but I don't think Mauler is even close to getting cut for us, so take that how you want to I guess
I'm honestly so bummed I won't be able to play this card behind Lutri, the Spellchaser/Dack Fayden/Ral Zarek (for Time Vault), since I love seeing the blowouts Kolaghan's Command is capable of on the play vs Mox openers, and this seems like an even stronger cube card. Def the third best Izzet card in cube, just a shame the other ones in less competitive color combinations were so much weaker than this
We've had snow cards in our paper cube since MH1, so these new ones look great but we won't be able to play them until covid ends since XMage doesn't support snow lands for custom drafts. Ascendant Spirit and Narfi, Betrayer King look incredible, and alongside Arcum's Astrolabe (and I guess on a technicality Coldsteel Heart) round out our snow section. We had to cut Icehide Golem, Frostwalk Bastion and Ice-Fang Coatl for space about a year ago but they're great too, and if our cube were any bigger we'd bring them back as well (specifically the Golem, might even replace Crawling Barrens with it because I miss it so much).
Reidane, God of the Worthy seems alright, but all decks that don't have snow cards in them would rather play regular basics in a format with this card, and although it looks alright even without the snow land effect, I don't think its good enough to justify a slot.
My favorite non-snow card of the set for sure for our cube. Card is super splashable, super versatile, and looks like it can close out games super fast. One of the things white has always severely missed is a huge body that can be dropped directly before/after Armageddon to close out the game by itself, a la True-Name Nemesis/Rotting Regisaur/Anje's Ravager or even non-3s like Tarmogoyf/Tasigur, the Golden Fang. The fastest white creatures in that territory are... Brimaz, King of Oreskos and flipped Kytheon, Hero of Akros? I thought Gideon Blackblade could alright in that role, but he severely underpreformed for us becuase of his lack of versatility elsewhere. Meanwhile the new additions of Skyclave Apparition and Maul of the Skyclaves have been great for white aggro decks trying to curve into Ravages of War, but they still don't single-handedly create that much pressure. A single turn 3 4/4 with flying and vigilance can likely take over a game, and the late game value on this card for 2 or even 3 4/4s is just incredible. Works great with Opposition and Glare of Subdual too because of the vigilance, just can't wait to get some reps in with this card.
I'm excited to test this card. The only foretell cards we wanted to try were this, Starnheim Unleashed and Glorious Protector, so for us there'll likely be little suspense as the what the control deck is tucking away in exile, but being able to wrath as early as turn 3 without a mana rock seems really strong. And although playing a rock on 2 and wrathing on 3 favors the 4cmc wraths, being able to drop a rock on 2 and exile this and hold up 2 and threaten a counterspell on 3, then cast this on 4 and have 2 up for the same counter seems like a perfectly reasonable line too.
You'll almost always have mana sitting around for this thing in control decks assuming it's in your opener, and although it might be worse off the top on turns 3 and 4, card looks solid. With that said, I really doubt it will stick in the long run in my cube since white doesn't really need more boardwipes next to Wrath of God/Day of Judgment/Winds of Abandon/Balance/Moat.
Damn I've never been a huge fan of Bloodbraid Elf, Sarkhan Vol, or Wrenn and Six in cube. We've played all 3 and the Elf was only ok, Sarkhan Vol was better than he looked but still pretty mediocre, and in our experience Wrenn and Six was pretty useless in the several drafts we got to play it in, just hardly ever did much.
In my experience, Dragonlord Atarka has been by far best Gruul card as a premier cube fatty, but Xenagos, the Reveler and Klothys, God of Destiny round out the rest of the ones we play, with Klothys probably being the second best and Xenagos at third (and imo by far the best/most versatile of all the Gruul 4 drops). Back years ago when our cube was 450 we played Huntmaster of the Fells, so I think that's probably(?) the fourth best Gruul cube card in a vacuum, but I might just be partial because it's so unique and can be really fun to build around, plus it's really good vs mono red which is super important in larger and unpowered cubes.
Card seems cool but just seems like it's going to be too hard to protect yourself. I think I'd really only be willing to play this in decks that would ordinarily platy Show and Tell, which tend to not play small creatures to block with or smaller creatures to get the monarch back if you lose it.
I've tried seeding Aether Vial as a WW card that could make Eternal Command a thing before, and that doesn't work at all. I might try this for the same reason, although I expect it will also fail.
Not that I'm especially familiar with the Eternal Witness control decks outside of modern, but I feel like Sublime Epiphany and/or Den Protector would make sense if you're trying to support that and need more redundancy. Even cards like Seasons Past (which I remember playing in my first cube years ago and was super fun) are sorta in that green control vein
Red aggro in cube is the same as burn as far as I'm aware, and we have plenty of red aggro support in our cube, so much so that it is one of our best decks.
With that said, this card seems alright, but kinda narrow. It's basically like Sulfuric Vortex in that it only goes in one deck, but it's quite a lot worse and has some substantial downsides to wheel. Cards that allow your opponent to make a choice tend to be far worse than they look, and I'm not convinced that the power of this card outweighs that inconsistency. You will always receive the worst option. Not to mentions, unlike wheel where you can fall behind and spend a turn digging for burn for next turn, if you win or tie with this you still take the damage and your opponent can outright just name the number that kills you. Obviously making this effect asymmetrical might be a bigger upside than I'm giving it credit for, but just off of first instinct this seems pretty inconstant and I'm not sure it's good enough outside of pretty big cubes.
Seems great in RDW, but what makes Wheel of Fortune so good is it's usefulness in Reanimator, Ramp, AND red aggro. This card only seems usefull in red aggro, and unless your cube is pretty large and requires more unique flagstone cards for the red aggro archetype, this card just seems too narrow imo
Elite Spellbinder -
Creature - Human Cleric
Flying
When Elite Spellbinder enters the battlefield, look at target opponent's hand. You may exile a nonland card from it. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast this way costs more to cast.
3/1
Hand attack in white that can disrupt the curve pre-armageddon seems really strong for aggro decks, not to mention its a good flicker target and comes strapped to a good clock and a strong flying body. Its super splashable, can be tutored with Recruiter of the Guard, and is even a Human for the cubes that care about that kind of thing. ETB doesn't work great as a late game topdeck, but the body should ideally help make up for that
Can't wait to test this guy, looks really strong imo.
Dire Fleet Daredevil
Eidolon of the Great Revel
Young Pyromancer
Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
Lightning Mauler
Earthshaker Khenra (just in for red 2-drop density, has been pretty mediocre)
Shrine of Burning Rage (really starting to show its age with all the incidental artifact hate and is likely on the way out)
First 4 are fantastic, but we still play Mauler and he's still the fifth best red 2 imo. Card curves great into red 3s and operates as a pseudo 3/4/5 curve topper for aggro decks. Definitely better than Earthshaker Khenra at least, but I can't say I've tried Robber of the Rich in cube by comparison, but I have played it in standard and been generally unimpressed with it.,
Next time we draft I'll probably ask about bringing Embereth Shieldbreaker back in place of Shrine or Khenra if I can remember to, but I don't think Mauler is even close to getting cut for us, so take that how you want to I guess
Reidane, God of the Worthy seems alright, but all decks that don't have snow cards in them would rather play regular basics in a format with this card, and although it looks alright even without the snow land effect, I don't think its good enough to justify a slot.
You'll almost always have mana sitting around for this thing in control decks assuming it's in your opener, and although it might be worse off the top on turns 3 and 4, card looks solid. With that said, I really doubt it will stick in the long run in my cube since white doesn't really need more boardwipes next to Wrath of God/Day of Judgment/Winds of Abandon/Balance/Moat.
In my experience, Dragonlord Atarka has been by far best Gruul card as a premier cube fatty, but Xenagos, the Reveler and Klothys, God of Destiny round out the rest of the ones we play, with Klothys probably being the second best and Xenagos at third (and imo by far the best/most versatile of all the Gruul 4 drops). Back years ago when our cube was 450 we played Huntmaster of the Fells, so I think that's probably(?) the fourth best Gruul cube card in a vacuum, but I might just be partial because it's so unique and can be really fun to build around, plus it's really good vs mono red which is super important in larger and unpowered cubes.
Not that I'm especially familiar with the Eternal Witness control decks outside of modern, but I feel like Sublime Epiphany and/or Den Protector would make sense if you're trying to support that and need more redundancy. Even cards like Seasons Past (which I remember playing in my first cube years ago and was super fun) are sorta in that green control vein
With that said, this card seems alright, but kinda narrow. It's basically like Sulfuric Vortex in that it only goes in one deck, but it's quite a lot worse and has some substantial downsides to wheel. Cards that allow your opponent to make a choice tend to be far worse than they look, and I'm not convinced that the power of this card outweighs that inconsistency. You will always receive the worst option. Not to mentions, unlike wheel where you can fall behind and spend a turn digging for burn for next turn, if you win or tie with this you still take the damage and your opponent can outright just name the number that kills you. Obviously making this effect asymmetrical might be a bigger upside than I'm giving it credit for, but just off of first instinct this seems pretty inconstant and I'm not sure it's good enough outside of pretty big cubes.