0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton
1 - effectively unplayable
2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in
3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in
4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes
5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives
6 - fringe cube worthy
7 - cube worthy
8 - cube staple
9 - unpowered cube bomb
10 - powered cube bomb
Cemetery Illuminator 7
Mediocre body and unable to operate as a Courser of Kruphix without the ability to ever play lands. The trigger on attack as well as EtB does however make this somewhat tempting. You can play it proactively without having any, or just not the ideal things to exile right away and work towards them. You can also exile multiple things over a period of time and setup to cast most cards off the top in a deck with a broad spread of types. Blue has access to a lot of library manipulation which helps turn this on as well. You can also play it with countermagic to some reasonable effect as it lets you play cards from the top in both turns. I do not like that this is relatively fragile nor that you can play it on curve and have it removed easily without gaining any residual value from it. You can avoid the latter issue by deploying later down the curve and perhaps setting up your library and graveyard to assure an immediate card up. This is an ongoing value dork which are not that common in blue but are pretty strong in other colours. Illuminator ultimately seems pretty decent. It is certainly leagues above things like Thieving Magpie! Not needing to connect for value potential is great. Not to mention the potential for ongoing yard disruption. This likely works out in my cube and fights with Svyelun God of Sea and Sky for action.
Katilda, Dawnheart Martyr // Katilda's Rising Dawn 2
This is unplayable outside of the spirit and/or enchantment decks. In them it is a bit clunky and somehow still quite a needy card. The power is not lacking but it is awkward and narrow. It will be really hard to build viable decks where this can reach its potential, at least it has a high ceiling it can try and tempt with.
Winged Portent 0
This manages to be pretty bad in either mode. Both are poorly cost and situational. They suck most when behind too which is the worst way to suck. Even in a fliers deck I can think of many better ways to fill up on cards.
Avabruck Caretaker // Hollowhenge Huntmaster 5
Ooof, this is a lot of card. Reminds me of Autumn Willow, who was actually a good card back in the day unbelievable as that may now seem. This is obviously powered up rather to compensate for the quarter century of power creep since Autumn Willow and seems fairly playable as a result. Probably however just not quite there for cube. Flipping this is going to win most games and it is the kind of card you can sit back on to some degree but getting to a six drop, then waiting a couple of turns so you can flip is all a bit slow for cube. If there is any sort of reasonable chance you can start out at night then things get rather more tasty! This kind of card is somewhat better suited to being a planeswalker. I want my expensive dorks to have a good clock and a big immediate impact, if my top end is going to be slow about winning I want it to avoid Wraths. Much as I like this I think Carnage Tyrant will wind up doing more a lot of the time and I found Tyrant to be unimpressive in cube.
Jacob, Hauken, Inspector // Hauken's Insight 6
Little Jace this is not. This might not even be a Merfolk Looter. Exiling cards is no use as far as supporting graveyard synergies and that is a huge part of the strength in looting. What this offers as compensation for not filling up the bin is the standard looter card quality with a late game card draw engine. For six mana you get all your loots back plus an extra card each turn. Being able to flip at instant speed helps mitigate the huge six mana cost and makes this viable. Viable but still probably not great. The issue is this is only a threat when you have not only six mana but are also in a stable enough position to do so. Flipping this literally reduces your board presence for negative tempo! This card overall feels most like a Search for Azcanta, the slow ongoing early card quality and the late game gas for mana flip. Sadly Jacob misses out on that juicy being an Island phase in the middle that makes Search so strong. It is also a lot more vulnerable to being removed than Search. This is not without hope, the floor is solid and the power is there, I just might prefer an Enclave Cryptologist....
Olivia's Attendants 2
Chunky but lacking in immediate impact while also being mana intense to fully use. While fairly powerful it is such a long way from the bar for cube entry as a six drop. In red of all places too!
Cemetery Gatekeeper 8
This seems pretty solid. Ankh of Mishra on a 2/1 will be brutal early game. Instants and sorceries will mess up some decks while creatures will mess up others. You can try and time this for the right card type to get in the bin or you can just flop it out on whatever or even nothing. The card is nuts at best and fine at worst. It does the same sort of role as Eidolon of the Great Revel or Rampaging Ferocidon but it is more convenient and flexible. The card itself is like a tempo/aggro version of Direfleet Daredevil in that they have the same bodies and rely on the right thing being in the bin to be optimal. This is rather more powerful than Direfleet however. I expect a lot of decks to fold to this on turn two. It will just apply too much pressure for too little cost. Seems pretty ripe to do good work in a variety of formats beyond just cube.
Cobbled Lancer 6
I really like this card although it might well be too narrow for drafting cubes. You either need lots of looting and mill or a lot of cheap blue dorks. It is not a one drop, much more akin to a Serra Avenger. This however is a case of support rather than time and that is the rub. A one mana 3/3 on turn two is fantastic. By turn five it is a lot less relevant. There are two things this card has going for it that I hope will keep it in cube. The more minor is that blue just doesn't have much cheap fat. Being able to get a lot of stats into play for little mana is just the ticket when you are trying to wrestle for tempo. The other big win here is that you can cash it out in the late game for a card. Four to draw is a lot so it is really only a last resort but it is none the less a one mana card with very high tempo dork that ultimately doesn't cost you a card. I really like this and it would certainly have been top rate three or more years ago. Sadly with the power of things these days the idea of spending 4 mana to draw a card isn't all that impressive, you just don't have the time for that sort of thing very often. Value can be found in other ways at lower costs to your tempo. The odds on you paying 4 mana to draw a card in a game is low, lower still are they going to be for those occasions you go on to win. The other thing awkward with this card in the current state of cube is that it does want some support and that is a real turn off. To get play cards need to stand up by themselves which this doesn't.
Crawling Infestation 3
Seems a bit slow even if you can trigger the insect on the turn you make it. Slow mill is hard to make work in 40 card decks and a potential 1/1 in your turns is taking a very long time to be worth 3 mana. I like the card but I need to want both elements of this a lot before it is working out and that makes it effectively very narrow even if you can probably play it and have it be fine in many decks.
Edgar, Charmed Groom 5
This is just a bad Rekindling Phoenix. Sure, if this is given all of the turns and never disrupted it will eventually have a massive army of 2/2 lifelinking vampires alongside Edgar and represent more power than a Phoenix but Phoenix is one colour only, has a more useful body thanks to the evasion, and comes back right away as itself and not a small and limp 1/1. You just don't get to piss around for all of the time and in the games that you do you rarely just get to stockpile dorks leaving Edgar with little over the Phoenix. I would play Edgar all day long in tribal decks but as a stand alone he misses the mark. I cut Rekindling Phoenix from cube for being too polar, it is garbage against blue and white which just counter, bounce and exile it for fun while the other colours have a much rougher time trying to contain it. Edgar likely has the same issues there too making him yet more unappealing.
Blood tithe Harvester 6
This is a massive amount of card. Good stats and low cost. Utility and arguably value with the EtB blood trigger. Then to round it all off a handy little bonus removal mode too. This is the sort of card that shines brightest in cube but being gold here is a real turn off. Gold cards want to be things that pull you into a colour or things that you play in basically every deck in those colours. This is neither of those things. It has sufficient power and suitability to be in a cube but it is going to be a parasitic element in drafting and detract rather than add overall. Rakdos is also wildly full on gold cards with some of the very best on offer making the bar that much higher for this poor little two drop.
Panicked Bystander // Cackling Culprit 1
Low powered as far as cube goes and somewhat narrow. I am not playing this without life gain synergies and as soon as I have those I have many way more powerful options I can use.
Ill Tempered Loner // Howlpack Avenger 3
A Boros Reckoner style card. Quite a lot going on here with a good amount of potential but sadly the very real floor here is a Hill Giant. Too much has to go right for this to be worth the costs and risks. I will exclusively use this card in combo settings with the likes of Blasphemous Act.
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