Ikoria is a wild set. The power level is considerably higher than Theros, yet significantly lower than Eldraine, Modern Horizons and War of the Spark for cube. This is a good spot to be in. I thought this will be a battlecruiser set that will heavily favor high mana costs and the color green. Ikoria is surprisingly indiscriminate in its power level. All colors got something, and additions are spread across the curve.
Ikoria is the first set in a long while to feature cards in the top echelon of power. I am talking about the companion mechanic, which was added conservatively. I’d not be surprised if more comapnions would be added in with time. We got many good hybrids, which is always fun. We even got a significant improvement to the land section.
A note about Mutate. Mutate is not a great mechanic for this format. Requiring a non-human is a meaningful limitation on top of just requiring a creature to begin with. Most mutate creatures are designed to be abused with repeated mutations, which are impossible in a cube setting with any consistency. The only card of the lot which has potential is Gemrazer.
However, Mutate is also a rules nightmare. The reminder text does not really explain this ability. It has a lot of corner cases. Cube is the realm of corner cases. What happens when a mutated creature is flickered, if the top creature was a token? When Gemrazer mutates Nissa, Vastwood Seer and she flips? I am playing this game for a very long time and find the ability complicated. I am sure new players will not play it right, if they even dare to play with it. If the cards were interesting and strong enough it might be worth it, but since it is such a borderline case anyway I am not adding any for the time being.
White
–Angel of Sanctions; +Mothra, Supersonic Queen
(or Luminous Broodmoth, if corona virus made you a joyless, empty shell)
Why Angel?
Angel has a legacy of mediocrity. It is quite easy to remove the first time around. At that point the card is more expensive than you’d like to pay for removal. It is pretty risky to target a creature with ETB with Angel, as the Egyptian heavenly denizen is so easy to answer. As Angel is expensive you never get a tempo lead with it. A bounce spell especially hurts against the mummified flier.
What I like about Mothra?
When a creature dies, inside of staying in the graveyard it returns, loftier than before. After all, Mothra knows best. Broodmoth is very good defense against board wipes, which is the first obvious use. It also makes combat very unfavorable. You benefits from all trades, obviously. But what if you have a blocker? Your opponent can attack right through it, but is it worth giving that creature flying on the attack back?
Mothra has a lot of synergies, some are very potent. Of course any self-sacrificing creature gets another go and free wings, like Ranger-Captain of Eos, Shriekmaw or Sakura-Tribe Elder. Deranged Hermit will yield double the tokens. It is ripe for abuse with Recurring Nightmare. The moth breaks the symmetry of Lilianas. It is insane with Sneak Attack (a man can dream).
Mothra also forms a persist combo. It is hard to assemble, and not in any way a major point in favor of the shiny bug, but worth explaining as it is not obvious. You need three parts. The first is the legendary moth. The second is a sacrifice outlet: Goblin Bombardment, Woe Strider or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. The third is a persist creature: Kitchen Finks or Woodfall Primus.
- Sacrifice the persist creature
2. Return with Persist (no flying counter, -1/-1 counter)
3. Sacrifice the persist creature
4. Return with Moth (flying counter, no -1/-1 counter)
5. Go to 1.
What I dislike about Broodmoth?
The body is anemic for the cost. In this day and age, blue black and red have 4/4 fliers with upsides for the same cost and some do not even see play. The effect has to be great for this insect to be adopted into cube from the streets of Tokyo. But this effect does nothing if there are no other creatures on the battlefield and doesn’t work with fliers. Many of white’s most powerful creatures fly.
Still after that it is situational. Exile removal spells ignore it, as do Control Magic effects. This Japanese butterfly is super soft to bounce too.
Prediction
This card reminds me the most of Shalai. It has a serviceable body with a good protective ability. I hope Mothra will get out of its cocoon and be abused with synergies. It is fine at face value as a fail case in white midrange and white weenie curve top. At worst it is a sideboard card against mass removals. The real danger is the absolutely ridiculous amount of white four drops, which might push some of them out of the cube soon.
Blue
Why cut Deprive?
While it only costs two mana, returning a land to your hand is a huge setback. It gets you a turn away from your bombs, a turn away from your mass removal. This is a filler counterspell. It might make a return if many of newly added counters disappoint.
What I like about Neutralize?
The floor over all Cancel variants is much higher. Stuck on two mana? Cycle. Need to draw that fourth land for a board wipe? Cycle. Need the board wipe itself? Cycle. Not seeing your second blue source? Cycle. Stuck with a hand full of attrition? Discard this to find your draw spells and finishers more quickly.
What I dislike about Neutralize?
Cancel variants have historically not been great. It will always be a second grade counter to the cheaper options. Cycling is a lot less appealing on a card with pretty universal application like this. Sitting with a counter in hand grants safety, throwing it away to luck is risky. Besides some obvious situations like those detailed above, I am unsure it will be cycled much.
Prediction
This is likely the best Cancel variant printed. I expect it to see play and be adopted very quickly.
Play tip
Don’t cycle it aggressively. In a control deck I’d really try to avoid cycling this if it was the sole counter in my hand.
Why cut Aetherling?
Aetherling remained the most reliable way to close games. But the metagame has changed. Control mirrors are not as common and games end faster. Aetherling is at least a seven drop, and does nothing besides being an expensive finisher. The best thing about it was that it gave some control decks low on finishers inevitability. But now we got some of that taken care of by God-Eternal Kefnet and Cavalier of Gales.
What I like about Sharknado?
It is a scalable, uncounterable flash flier that draws a card. It is good in most situations. Stuck on two mana? Cycle with x equal zero. Facing an aggro deck? Cycle for three mana, and trade with their one drop. Want to get some value? Cycle to ambush and block, generating a two-for-one. Opponent has a scary planeswalker? Cycle at their end of turn and attack with a lethal flier. Held up mana for a counter but they played nothing? Advance your board position and dig deeper through your deck. In a control mirror? Cycle it at the endgame at the end of their turn as an uncounterable evasive finisher.
Rainy with a chance of sharks is not an actual creature cards, so it works well with Oath of Druids and a certain new red planeswalker. You will not accidentally cheat it into play instead of your eldrazi.
What I dislike about Shark Typhoon?
The spell mode is quite poor. It costs six yet does nothing immediately. The trigger is conditional. How many triggers do you need before it is better than just cycling, getting a 4/4 flier immediately and drawing a card?
Cycling does not trigger Thing In the Ice or Monastery Mentor. The shark as a token is vulnerable to bounce and Flickerwisp.
Prediction
Shark Typhoon is a great card for control decks. Simic ramp should make some big sharks too. Hard to see this leaving the cube anytime soon.
Play tip
As a rule of thumb don’t cast the enchantment. If you can put in play for free with an Eureka or a Show and Tell, fine, but avoid otherwise.
–Fact or Fiction; +Voracious Greatshark
Why cut Fact or Fiction?
This should have been cut long ago. The cube is too aggressive for this card. It is expensive and does not affect the board. The gameplay is great, the card advantage and selection is serious. But you are way too often too far behind on board to afford casting this. It is great in control mirrors, especially permission based one. Such mirrors are very rare nowadays. Fact or Fiction saw less and less maindeck action as time went on. Currently it is not far off a sideboard card.
What I like about Greatshark?
Sink your teeth in this Torrential Gearhulk‘s fishy relative. Gearhulk certainly has a higher ceiling, but most often casts a counterspell. This is certainly stronger, but is offset by two facts. One, it is more expensive by a mana. Two and the most prominent drawback, Gearhulk requires a large amount of instants in the deck to see play to begin with.
Greatshark at its expected average case scenario is a clean two-for-one, a counterspell strapped on a fat creature. You can even chews to counter an artifact. The floor of just being a 5/4 flash is much higher than the worst case scenario of Desertion. Shark can be played as a surprise blocker, or as a surprise attacker to kill a planeswalker. Just a simple EOT, make a fatty when there is nothing to counter, is a fin(e) play.
What I dislike about Voracious Shark?
It will feel really bad holding this when your opponent casts a strong planeswalker, or a sorcery. His trigger might not be active enough of the time in some matchups. A 5/4 body without any abilities is not exactly as scary as the movie Jaws, or most creatures in cube for the matter.
Prediction
I think this will be an acceptable performer, likely better than Thryx and Torrential Gearhulk. Flash creatures are really pushed in the last few sets, this should boost permission decks in the metagame.
Play tip
Voracious is much better when there are other counters in the deck to complement it. He cannot counter anything, and holding up five mana can be suspicious.
Black
–Epic Downfall; +Heartless Act
Why cut Downfall?
The double drawback of sorcery speed and mana cost restriction is just too high compared to the exile upside. Abysmal maindeck rates and low action from the sideboard too.
What I like about Heartless Act?
It kills almost anything. There are 31 cards that are either creatures that enter with counters, or give creatures counters. The full list can be seen below. Go for the Throat, the best spot removal that costs 1B, misses only 15. This is a misleading comparison however; if we take tokens into account that number rises considerably.
This is also harsh on Heartless Act. Most creatures it cannot kill, it can still target and interact with meaningfully. Weakening a creature mid-combat can be as good as death. A lot of cards only have counters some of the time. Gideons cannot be killed, but their loyalty can be lowered and so on. Act is actually one of the better ways in black to deal with a Hangarback Walker.
Act can also be used on you own creature, beneficially. It can give a persist creature another life. It can flip Thing in the Ice faster.
What I dislike about Heartless act?
Most of the cards it misses are green. Of those many spread the counters around to several creatures. It might be sided out against some green decks as a result.
The card’s true weakness are opposing persist creatures, which it is powerless against. It is also useless against an opposing Wall of Roots and Devoted Druid, although low priority targets.
Prediction
In terms of design and gameplay, I really like that Heartless Act almost always does something. Notably it catches all the top end threats that can be cheated early. In powerlevel it is only behind Go for the Throat, which is a very good place to be in. Expect to see this often.
–Braids, cabal Minion; +Living Death
Why cut Braids?
She sees too little play. A deck is always a few synergies short of playing her. Without ways to break the symmetry, she is too risky to play. It is not unplausable she could return if at some point the support for stacks is increased. Knowing wizards, I’d not hold my breath.
What I like about Living Death?
It has a huge impact on the game. It can reanimate multiple fatties at once. It kills opposing creatures. A well-timed Living Death should win the game, even if you are seriously behind. Living Death creates memorable plays. It is an amazing payoff for Survival/Fauna Shaman. It works well with sac outlets. Sneak Attack is a best friend.
In less ideal scenarios, it is just a fair reanimation spell that can double as a mass removal. It quite the effective board wipe too, killing indestructible creatures. Reanimator decks often need the board control to survive.
What I dislike about Living Death?
Your opponent gets to reanimate creatures too, so there will be some situations when this is straight-up uncastable. Often times you have to remove creatures to survive until turn five. Unless what you reanimate is significantly better than what they have in the graveyard, this is going to be bad.
For reanimator decks, five mana is expensive for a reanimation spell. By that time you can cast a game-ending threat naturally, or ramp in equal speed.
It is quite poor in a reanimator/cheat deck mirror.
Prediction
Liliana, Death’s Majesty is a 5 cmc reanimation spell that sees play. Living Death is less consistent, but has a much higher ceiling. I believe it is exciting enough that people will at least try it. It is a bit like Balance – it will not see play every draft, it requires timing, but the payoff is unmatchable.
Red
–Fanatical Firebrand; +Embercleave
Why cut Fanatical Firebrand?
It is a low power filler no one would miss.
What I like about Embercleave?
A lot of damage. On any decently sized creature it kills fast. A 4 power creature will now kill in two swings. It is a way to develop the board without overcommitting to the board – Embercleave survives board wipes. All this joy can be had for a mana cost price as low as two. This equipment offers a way for aggro decks to grind through midrange blockers in that tough matchup.
Perhaps Embercleave’s biggest selling point is that it is an offensive combat trick, which the cube has virtually none. You can surprise and kill blockers or planeswalkers. Now the blocking player will have to think twice if you have mana open. Several cards do that defensively (Settle the Wreckage, all flash creatures) but none do that offensively (besides somewhat Boulder Rush).
What I dislike about Embercleave?
Embercleave has all the obvious pitfalls of an equipment – it requires a creature to be on the board to do anything. Embercleave in particular is pretty poor without several attacking creatures – it will do little when you are behind. It is a bit of a win more. If you are already attacking with several creatures you are on probably going to win anyway.
It also has an inner tension – you want to attack with many creatures to lower its price, but the double strike scales much better with larger creatures. Finally, when the attached creature dies, the equip cost is expensive.
Prediction
Embercleave will do some fun surprise kill shots. In practice it is at least +3/+0 and trample on a 1/1 token. The average case scenario is probably closer to 4.5 damage, for 3-4 mana. I believe its narrowness plus win more nature will not make its days in the cube long.
–Purphoros, God of the Forge; +Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast
Why cut Purphoros?
Purphoros needs a lot of support to be run. A LOT. He does nothing on his own, adds nothing defensively and never anything the turn he comes down. He is also much worse on an already-developed board. His powerful ability, by far, is the trigger. Most decks do not generate enough creatures to leverage his advantage. Follow him up with a Siege-Gang Commander? Awesome! Thundermaw Hellkite? Plain overkill or worse.
Aggro decks run a lot of their gas out by the time you cast a four drop. That, with his lack of impact and fierce competition makes him a no-go for that deck. But control, cheat and artifact decks do not play enough creatures to trigger him reliably. That leaves him as a token deck plant. It feels unnecessary in those decks and makes maindecks rarely. For completeness, I have never seen him become a creature since the time of its printing.
What I like about Lukka?
He is a Polymorph that skips cheap creatures straight into the fatties. It might fit in the red cheat deck, next to Sneak Attack, Through the Breach and Ilharg. He can even Polymorph twice in a row, increasing the mana cost thus increasing your chances of hitting that Eldrazi.
If you do not have fodder to polymorph, Lukka can find one for you. The ultimate is usually overkill, but nonetheless kill players with a serious fattie out.
What I dislike about Lukka?
First, it is a one-trick pony. This card is solely a cheat card, so it has to be good at what it does.
Second, his first ability is quite trash. You need to play roughly a third creatures to have an average of one hit with his first ability. I think most cheat decks will struggle to do that. It also mills your deck as quickly as Ashiok. Lukka is not a card advantage engine for slow games, he will deck you.
Also, the card is a bit at odds with itself. You want to play a lot of creatures for the first ability to shine. But doing that you decrease the consistency of the second ability.
Prediction
The ideal Lukka deck will be very hard to craft. How well does he perform in realistic conditions? Lukka has an immediate home, so I hope it will see enough play to be able to make a quick judgment on him.
–Magmatic Sinkhole; +Purphoros’s Intervention
Why cut Sinkhole?
Both cards fill the exact same spot. They are narrow enough that two are probably unwarranted. It is just a niche effect compared to all-purpose burn. Aggro decks do not want it, slower deck only do if they don’t have access to better removal in their other colors.
What I like about Invervention?
It kills stuff much more consistently than Sinkhole early, be it a mana elf turn two or a Brimaz turn three. It is also uncapped and can kill titans. As it can attack, it is never a dead draw either. It serves a dual purpose in your deck of both a piece of interaction and a way to close the game.
This is the best removal of the Blaze variants. Intervention will not be a wasted card in your hand until the very late game. In Izzet or Gruul decks, it provides an effect the colors have no access to, in a playable package. It is a good mana sink for all the excess mana the artifact deck or green ramp can lend you.
What I dislike about intervention?
It is much worse at ending the game than Blaze. The creature can be blocked to prevent some of the damage. It can be killed by a removal spell. It cannot go past a first strike blocker, nor a Maze of Ith. Bounce and tap effects also do the job.
Unlike Sinkhole, it is sorcery speed. It is also never as efficient. Like all scalable spells, the return for mana for lower values of X is suboptimal. For 1R it is a sorcery speed Shock that does not hit players.
Prediction
It is a significant upgrade that I am unsure how I missed. The 1R non-player Shock might be a bad mode, but it will absolutely save you against that Rabblemaster accelerated by a Mox, or against an opposing mana dork when you went first.
Intervention is the best at what it does in red. The question is how thirsty is red for an inefficient removal for high toughness creatures and/or high loyalty planeswalkers?
Green
–Finale of Devastation; +Vivien, Monster’s Advocate
Why cut Finale?
It is too expensive. Even a great creature will be bad if cast two turns later than its mana cost usually allows. The unsplashable cost is also a hit to playability. Unlike Green Sun’s Zenith, Finale will not find a mana elf turn two to ramp you and get you out of color screw. You will need to wait a turn longer to get Reclamation Sage. This is of course assuming you are not in a mana screw.
What I like about Vivien?
Not too long ago, Garruk, Primal Hunter was played in cube. Vivien fills the same basic role of providing a stream of 3/3s while increasing her loyalty. But now they get abilities that fit the board state. The most powerful is probably reach – green is usually soft to fliers. Reach beasts are a good way to keep vivien alive. Trample is good when you are ahead, in a planeswalker war or have a sword. Vigilance is great against aggro or in a race.
But she does other things while producing those tokens. Vizier of the Menagerie was not a good card, but with Vivien you get its static ability for free. A reasonable expectation is to see a creature every 3 turns or so. Out of those it is safe to assume you will not always opt to play the creature from the top, either because you are forced to play something else, or because you have more powerful things to cast from hand. Let’s say you play the card you see in 2/3 of times. That means that ability will generate card advantage once every 5 turns or so. This frequency can be increased with shuffle effects, high creature count and the other top lookers like Library of Alexandria, Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya. But even just looking at the top card is useful information.
The third ability is both card advantage, mana advantage and a tutor effect. It is useful right away and it is the only negative loyalty ability. Vivien will assemble creature synergies consistently. It forms a double synergy with the static ability. You can find creatures to trigger from the top. The shuffle will help finding creatures to cast off the top.
What I dislike about Vivien
In some matchups a 3/3 just isn’t that meaningful. Reanimator decks and other ramp decks are an example. The creature tutor requires drawing expensive creature and is not reliable. Notably, it can almost never be used the turn Vivien is cast.
Even when Vivien fires on all cylinders, she attacks on the same axis – adding creatures on board. A mass removal answers everything she has to give, and as she is not a threat herself they can be sandbagged effectively to combat her. Moat is a bigger issue, unless you can find a creature that destroys an enchantment.
Prediction
Vivien is good, but green five drops are very competitive. I have no idea how she relates to them.
–Wicked Wolf; +Kogla, the Titan Ape
Why cut wolf?
Wolf answers too few creatures well. Even two drops can kill him in a fight. While killing a token is fine, this is not your way to victory in green. So fine, you killed a 1/1 soldier, and got a 3/3 wolf with no combat abilities. Isn’t a beefy threat better? Control has too few targets and Wolf is sided out. Against midrange the kill ability is good a picking mana elves and the like, but the body is terrible. Against aggro the card is at its best, usually killing a one drop, and trading with a 2 or 3 drop on defense. But aggro is already a favored matchup for green and the card does not feel necessary.
What I like about Kogla?
Kogla fights on ETB. On a creature this big this is as good as a hard removal. It can kill titans. It makes Kogla a good stabilizer, an important trait on a late drop. After that Kogla will Disenchant every turn. This repeated value is disruptive and might force opponent to keep precious artifact or enchantments in hand until King Kong is gone.
The activated ability grants some important protection against removal. It also synergizes well with some humans with ETB effects such as Eternal Witness and Blade Splicer.
Kogla works well with all cheat effects- reanimation, Natural Order, Green Sun’s Zenith and Sneak Attack.
Kogla + Karakas is a repeatable removal every turn, in a color pair you wouldn’t expect to see one.
What I dislike about King Kogla
Fight is still not an ideal form of removal. Kogla will die in a titan fight. A deathtouch creature is another problem. The repeated Disenchant is too late to be of great importance against the most common type of artifact – mana rock. Kogla is not a substitute for cheaper Naturalizes.
The activated ability requires a human specifically, which means it will not be active much. It also costs a lot of mana. In particular it is hard to cast Kogla with protection mana up. This is because Kogla has an unsplashable triple green mana cost.
The worst drawback is the lack of evasion. If Kogla is killed by a removal at least you have killed a threat and generated a two-for-one. But without trample Kogla can be chumped for days. Kogla will have a hard time finishing games.
The premise of generating a card advantage of 2-3 over two turns (one creature killed by fight, one by blocking, an artifact/enchantment was disenchanted) will probably be an average scenario. Yet it is not a guarantee. If you do not have a target to kill with the fight ability you will have a sad monkey. A disenchant every turn will run out of targets. A true titan trigger it is not.
Prediction
I hope Kogla will be good enough, but I see it as a risky addition.
Why cut Return to Nature?
The graveyard hate is too rare. You need to have two mana open at the exact correct time. It is so rare that Return to Nature is still a sideboard-only card. A broader answer than Naturalize, sure, but we can do better.
What I like about Wilt?
In the common case of not having a target, you can cycle it. It is never dead. It still offers the instant speed answer functionality in a more palatable package. I am low key happy with Forsake the Worldly. Wilt is the same but usually better, as the cheaper cost is usually better than exiling.
I also like that it is not as cheap to cycle as Dissenter’s Deliverance. Deliverance was sometimes just cycled turn one, leaving you exposed to possible targets down the line. Wilt is not cycled as easily, leading to a greater chance of seeing it performing his main role.
What I dislike about Wilt?
Forsake the Worldly is still a sideboard card slightly more often than it is a maindeck card.
Prediction
This wilt be a far better card to maindeck over R2N in two main cases. First, when you have few other answers of its ype. Two, when you are low on playables. If Wilt gets a maindeck percentage greater than one third or so, I’d consider that a win. I like to have some instant speed answers available for gameplay purposes. Having both Forsake, Wilt and Nature’s Chant might be too much. If it is, the prime candidate for cutting is Forsake the Worldly.
–Scavenging Ooze; +The First Iroan Games
Why cut Ooze?
Ooze is mediocre nowadays. It is usually a bear in the first two turns of the game. Later, it is a big creature that gains a few points of life. But it still has no trample and the lifegain is not reliable. As a topdeck it still requires a lot of green sources to reach its potential. Ooze does not support any strategy well, it is just there as a reasonably powerful card to fill out the curve.
Ooze hates on a failing strategy that need all the support it can get. Reanimator is struggling to take off. Removing cards like it, while not of huge significance, can help.
What I like about the First Iroan Games?
Green card advantage. If left unchecked, it is a 4/4 and two cards for three mana. The third chapter works with any 4 power creature you control.
What I dislike about the Iroan Games?
The token is just a 1/1. If they kill it in response to/after the counters, you will gain nothing. Yet they see it coming – your opponent will have the time to prepare their removals. The 1/1 you immediately create is not likely to be used as a blocker.
Prediction
It is safe to assume most of the time our opponent will kill the token. But that’s still a good outcome. It is a three drop that your opponent is heavily incentivized to remove in his next turn. It will spend their resources and shift their gameplan just so they can answer it. I think this is good enough on a splashable three drop. Other cubes had success with it so it is worth trying.
Multicolored
–Vial-Smasher, the Fierce; +Fiend Artisan
Why cut Vial-Smasher?
Vial Smasher is a three drop that is only useful for burning opponents’ faces. As it also has poor stats, it was mostly an aggro card. In aggro, it suffered from not doing anything the turn you play it. It does not pass the Vindicate test. Even if it is not removed, it can still do little if you have few spells to cast in hand. In aggro the average converted mana cost of cards is low. The real dealbreaker is just how good mono red three drops are right now and Smasher does not hold to the competition.
What I like about Fiend Artisan?
It is a repeatable Green Sun’s Zenith, without the color requirement. Artisan can find what you need and put it directly into play. Artisan can sacrifice tokens to generate card advantage. In black it pairs very well with recursive creatures and Ophiomancer. In green it is a mana sink that will turn mana elves in the late game into gas. A great fit for Recurring Nightmare and Meren decks.
Unlike Vivien’s Arkbow or Survival of the Fittest, you are not wasting a card. Fiend Artisan can easily be a 3/3 or more, a relevant threat. It is especially true late game, but it also synergizes with its activated ability.
Being hybrid is a major boon here too. I can easily see decks without black or without green playing this card.
What I dislike about Fiend Artisan?
It is slow. Your opponent has an entire turn to answer Fiend before you can fetch anything. You are also paying a fair price for what you get. Each turn will usually be either play a card from your hand or fetch a creature from your deck, not both, especially early. That is assuming you have creatures you are willing to sacrifice. If you don’t, then Artisan will just be a wimp body.
Prediction
Fiend Artisan reads better than it plays. Needing mana, creatures you can afford to sacrifice and surviving a turn are a lot of conditions. I believe it will see more play than might seem otherwise due to the hybrid cost. As a gold card I don’t think he would have made it.
Play tip
Do not try to overuse the ability. Don’t sacrifice your mana elf turn three, especially if you still have cards in your hand. On the other hand, don’t hesitate to simply attack with him late game. Don’t feel obligated to use his ability. A large part of his draw is his moderately fat body in the late game.
–The Royal Scions; +Lutri, the Spellchaser
The autoest of auto includes
What I dislike about scions?
They are bad on defense. Izzet has few cheap creatures and as such the usability of the planeswalkers is nearly cut in half. In almost all decks this is just filler.
What I like about Lutri?
It is otterly broken. It might seem unassuming at first, being a riff off of Dualcaster Mage. It costs hybrid mana, and has more power, but it cannot copy your opponent’s spells and his ability is not an ETB trigger so doesn’t go infinite. All in all a slight upgrade for an irrelevant card.
Companion changes everything. As the condition is automatically fulfilled in cube, this is just a free card that you draw every game. Your starting hand size is eight. It is a conspiracy you always have access to, not a card in your main deck. And it cannot be discarded until you play it. It is a bad card, but it is as free as it can be.
What does companion do? Let’s ignore the triggered ability for the time being. It is a three drop you draw every game. Not a good one, but still a relevant play you are guaranteed to have. You can play significantly less three drops in your deck. You can go by with a lower creature count in general. You can play slightly more equipment. You are almost guaranteed to have a ground blocker for your four drop planeswalker. Lutri adds so much consistency it allows you to change your deck-building.
Lutri will have an impact even if it is never cast because of the luxuries it affords you during construction and the mulligans you won’t take because of that extra card cushion. When your opponent sees a companion he or she has to play around it somewhat even if you don’t ever cast it. Perhaps it means not attacking with a Goblin Rabblemaster when you have three mana open. Perhaps it will be walking into a counterspell more often, as now untapped lands are not suspicious. I even think there is some merit in playing Lutri as a companion even if you can never cast it. A free mind game, don’t mind if I do.
Companion works very well with Oath of Druids and Lukka. You cannot flip a three drop by chance, yet you still get to have it in your hand.
Flash is probably his strongest ability after companion. He is a decent way to kill an attacker. He is a solid use for end of turn mana that was not used for a counter spell. His presence on the sideboard will force your opponent to play more conservatively with planeswalkers and keep them more defended than normal. The threat of activation is a big deal with this card.
Finally we have the flashy Fork ability. This is a conditional trigger. Most decks do not play many instant and sorceries, and fewer still that benefit doubling (counters and mass removals seldom do). Many instants and sorceries will require two targets to be copy-friendly. That still leaves some options, but note how color heavy they are in deck that is of two or more colors, non-Izzet. However, the Twincast will absolutely be relevant sometimes. Copying a Ponder is solid value, Lightning Bolt is good and Time Walk is bonkers.
I think Lutri could be significantly weaker to still see cube play. It could cost more mana, have weaker stats or have no trigger. Maybe even some of those drawbacks combined. And it would still be good.
Lutri has some more redeeming qualities than powerlevel alone. It is a very rare playable Fork effect (Double Stroke is too, but doesn’t make you feel as smart when you use it). It is a bomb in Izzet, a long time weak guild in the gold card department. It combos with Karakas for some weird shenanigans.
What I dislike about Lutri?
It is repetitive. It will always see play, as it is hybrid and free. Every otter draft, a deck at the table would play him. When the legendary otter is drafted, it is drawn every single match, every single game. It can make games feel the same.
Prediction
One way or an otter, this should get in. It is first pick quality for many decks. That is one of the redeeming qualities of the card in my opinion; its powerlevel can be increased by building around it. An artifact deck or a midrange affair will not like him nearly as much as a permission deck or an aggro deck.
Play tip
Don’t try to be greedy and milk value with the trigger. Many (most?) times a flash creature now is better than card advantage later.
–Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice; +Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Why cut Aurelia?
There are too many aggro curve-toppers in those colors. Aurelia is not great outside of aggro and midrange as she doesn’t provide any value outside her body. The red and white four drops are just better. In red they have more immediate impact or are harder to remove. In white they are better when you are behind and again harder to remove. She didn’t make the cut often even in “perfect” decks for her.
What I like about Churros?
Let’s start by defusing the bomb – the companion. If the cat is your companion it is at least as good as Lutri, probably even more so. The cost of that is making your deck worse. With Lurrus you will always have a three drop, but not playing any of the white four drop bombs or mighty three drops is a tall order. This basically rules out midrange and control decks and only leaves aggro in the equation.
If you see Lurrus in pack 2 or 3, it will probably be impossible to build a suitable deck to play him – you will just not have enough playables. There is also the issue of vulnerability. Your opponent sees Lurrus before the game starts. He will have a removal spell ready. Lurrus is still a free card, so it is not too bad when he dies, except if your deck really cannot function without the cute nightmare. If you want to secure value, you play Lurrus as a 4 drop (more on that later)… which goes against one of the natural advantages of low curve decks: playing less lands.
I do think Lurrus can be quite amazing as a companion, if you have a functioning deck without him that he can slot in. I think it is a fun challenge and I’d be happy to see such a deck emerge. But realistically that will be very rare.
Bomb defused.
Now we can add some optimism back. The double-tailed feline is a solid card as a part of the final 40. Again, hybrid is key here, as Lurrus is playable in so many decks. It is not quite a mini Sun Titan, as it cannot recur lands, but he still has impressive applications. It is good to return comrades killed by removal or combat. It is a way to recover a mass removal. When four-eyes is on the battlefield, you can chump block with a low drop for eternity. You can also freely chump attack.
That is without talking about specific synergies. Dauntless Bodyguard and Selfless Spirit are a nice combo. Off-color, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Keldon Marauders and Goblin Cratermaker are examples of nice synergies. But Lurrus can get back non-creature permanents too. The most busted is Black Lotus, where you can go Lotus -> Lurrus -> Lotus for a quick concession. It chains Mind Stone. But really there a lot of strong cards for it to bring back, from a destroyed Sol Ring or Skullclamp to an Animate Dead.
Lurrus is a source of lifelink in black which is always welcomed. It makes the card meaningful when you are under pressure and don’t have the time to assemble an engine or try and grind card advantage.
What I dislike about Lurrus?
The body is weak. Churros dies to one drops. If you want to assemble a repeatable recursion, you will likely need to avoid attacking and blocking with it altogether. Even still, the kitty dies to a stiff breeze, including every burn spell.
You still need to pay for what you bring back. If you want to secure card advantage the smoking cat is at least a four drop. Chances of you having a one drop in the graveyard are not great though, so it more realistically a five drop.
Prediction
Lurrus is overrated right now. It is novel, it has an absurd ceiling as a companion, and it has a baby kitten in its art. In practice it will be quite fair. Still, with his open ended ability and flexible hybrid cost I expect him to see some clever unexpected uses. Orzhov is a guild we’ve struggled to find a good 4th option in, so he gets an easy spot for testing.
–Coiling Oracle; +Uro, Nature’s Titan
Why cut Oracle?
While it is incredibly playable, it is not powerful. Cards like Elvish Visionary and Wall of Blossoms are mono-green two drops that replace themselves, Fblthp the same in blue. Oracle can ramp, but unreliably, and it will not dig you out of a color screw.
What I like about Uro?
It advances your game turn three, with both card draw, ramp and lifegain to recover some of the tempo loss. After that it is a titan that awaits in your graveyard. It is uncounterable and inevitable. Repeatable card draw will dominate the long game and repeatable life gain is a serious problem for aggro. Simic usually doesn’t use cards in the graveyard much, so exiling them is often not an issue.
What I dislike about Uro?
The escape cost is very color intensive. Getting five cards in your graveyard is not easy, especially for this color pair. It is a late game effect and unlikely to happen twice a game.
The three mana cast is an Explore with another blue mana and some life gain. Explore was cut from green for being inconsistent, and the difference only makes him worst. If you don’t plan on escaping Uro, it is not worth playing.
Uro does not work with any cheat effect. Not reanimation, not Sneak Attack and not Natural Order.
The titan has no evasion, so it is not a quick finisher. Uro is weak to more removals than other fatties. Bounce is potent against him. Flickerwisp will cause him to sacrifice himself.
Prediction
I was of the opinion that Oracle is the better card. Uro had too much success in other cubes and other formats that it cannot be ignored anymore.
Colorless
–Sensei’s Divining Top; +Stonecoil Serpent
A wild Onyx appears!
Why cut Top?
There are two strong reasons. One, it is weak. As card disadvantage, you have to see a lot of cards to make top worth the sacrifice. Besides the artifact deck, green decks with a lot of shuffle effects (and little card selection) and Monastery Mentor, it doesn’t see play. The other reason is that it is makes games longer. With top it is not rare to use it several times a turn, and each usage takes time.
What I like about Stonecoil Serpent?
Scalability. When you miss your two drop, it is one. When you are in topdeck mode, it is a game ending threat. Need a blocker for your planeswalker? He delivers, and blocks fliers too. It is simply a card that is hard to leave out of the maindeck. Got curve problems? It is also a four drop. Need another cheap creature to hold equipment? Done. Late game power? Hissss (I am unsure of the accuracy of that voice imitation though).
In the artifact deck it is both a cheap artifact to Tinker and a mana sink for Tolarian Academy. It is another tutorable target for Trinket Mage, Recruiter of the Guard and Knight-Captain of Eos. While usually protection from multicolored is quite poo (see Soldier of the Pantheon), it is much more relevant on an artifact. Knight of Autumn, Kolaghan’s Command, Hostage Taker, Qasali Pridemage, Dack Fayden and more would have otherwise been relevant against it.
What I dislike bout serpent?
It is significantly inefficient at every mana cost. As a cheap card it doesn’t apply much pressure. As an expensive card it is vulnerable to removal, including shatters. This excels at nothing in particular and as such could have problem making the cut over much more efficient cards.
Prediction
I think this will be a very good pick during the draft. It is a good hole-filler, the sort of cards that make even train-wreck decks have some game. I hope it will not be too underrated as it does read bad.
Lands
–Armageddon; –Enclave Cryptologist; –Midnight Reaper; –Goblin Welder; –Cultivate; +5 Triomes
What I like about the Triomes?
They have so many basic land types. They are fetchable with 9 out of the ten fetches. They makes mana bases far more consistent. The make Three Visits, Nature’s Lore and Farseek considerably better. They work with Utopia Sprawl, Arbor Elf, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Nissa, Worldwaker, Rofellos, Fireblast, Snuff Out, Koth of the Hammer, Vedalken Shackles and more.
They are close to the bicycle land cycle. That cycle sees moderate success, mostly because of the basic land types. But the Triomes are far better in a cube perspective. Without fetches, Cinder Glade will only see play in a Gruul deck. If there is none at the table, especially at later packs, it is a guaranteed late pick. Ketria Triome will see play in three times as many decks. As such it will be a useful pick far more often and will never go as late.
Why cut five monocolored cards?
I do not want to favor some color combinations over others. Cutting an allied cycle of duals will favor enemy guilds and vice versa. Besides, I think the new cycle of lands will be played in a lot of decks. An azorius deck wanting to splash black will get Indatha Triome with Arid Mesa. I see them as almost a rainbow cycle of lands.
Why cut Armageddon?
We’ve already cut Ravages of War. The card is only good when you are ahead and completely unplayable when behind. The situations where this card wins the game are much rarer nowadays. There are many mana rocks and mana elves floating around. A lot more decks play cheap creatures. Days of old where you could go 1 drop, 2 drop, 3 drop Armageddon and win are long gone. As a result it did not make main decks often.
Why cut Cryptologist?
Looters are not a hot commodity anymore outside of reanimation decks. In control decks it is mostly played as cheap card selection. Except it is not cheap, not immediate and fragile. One mana cantrips just do a better job.
Why cut Midnight Reaper?
Midnight Reaper is a fine card, it is cut because black is spread thin between supporting aggro, control and reanimator. Reaper has a weak body itself. Black has a few other cheap creatures that generate card advantage in exchange for life gain like Dark Confidant, Ruin Raider, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner and Mindblade Render. The returns are diminishing. Reaper is the one card that does it passively, unless you have some sacrifice shenanigans which don’t involve tokens. Repear is protection against mass removals, but blacks needs that far less than other colors as many creatures can be replayed from the graveyard.
Why cut Welder?
Narrowness. It is too hard to assemble a deck fitting for welder. Artifact decks exist, but they mostly revolve around tokens, Tolarian Academy and/or Tinker. Welder requires a lot more from the deck than Tinker – you need to have fatties worth cheating and a way to put them in the yard. Alternatively you need artifacts with good ETB or LTB effect to chain every turn. The cube has few artifact fatties and those with ETB, and their number is not growing. Welder is so restrictive most artifact decks do not play him either.
Why cut Cultivate?
Same reasoning as Kodama’s Reach. In a nutshell – if you spend your third turn to ramp, you are playing a losing strategy. It’s a trap, don’t do it.
What I dislike about Triomes?
Entering the battlefield tapped is a harsh drawback. I think Savai Triome will see less play than the others in the cycle because its guilds are aggressive.
Three mana is a lot to cycle. As Sweltering Suns demonstrated, it is a far steeper price than cycling for only two mana. I expect them to be cycled rarely.
The crux of the issue is that while Triomes are great during the draft, they are only okay in gameplay on the average scenario where only two colors out of the three are useful.
Prediction
Adding five extra dual lands skews the balance of fixing. Too much fixing can be detrimental to the environment. I don’t think five cards will make a big difference. Such a time will come though – the cycle will be completed at some point probably. When it is time to cut fixing, I’d prefer to cut one dual per guild than the Triomes, because of the last picks issue and broader usability.
MtG Cube Crafting 