Phyrexia: All Will Be One Conclusions and Additions

 

I like this set a lot. Great aesthetic. Good match with the art styles to the themes. Cool cards. The right sort of cards and power. Nothing egregious. Hasbro do a lot of dumb shit at the moment but the the teams involved in the set design, the bread and butter of the game, have been pretty on top of their game for a good while now and deserve some recognition. They also deserve to be managed rather better but that is not what we are here to discuss! 

I might have to do some limited with this set as I am curious to see if they managed to solve the issue of having poison as a main mechanic in a set. They look to have addressed it and improved upon it but that does not mean it is going to be good in a limited setting. I hope they have. I am very impressed overall with the power level of the commons but it did seem particularly pushed on the white toxic cards. 

As far as cube goes this set seems to buff Jund most overall with white getting the odd new interesting toy. Blue gets like one card and some standard good stuff with a bit of near free proliferate bolted on. Obviously being a bit more considered and sensible on the power and power creep this set is not overly remarkable as far as changes to the cube meta go. Even so, this is absolutely the sort of thing I want to see as a cube player and it looks to be very much along the right lines for limited, standard, and EDH as well so hopefully a hit. 

I am glad to see the sensible return of Phyrexian mana, it was a good idea, just used with too much abandon first time round. They could have been even more adventurous with its use than they were but best to err on the side of caution, especially given Gitaxian Probe eta al. It always feels so wrong when a set is done right to be as brief as I am. It just seems redundant to go on saying it is good and better to let it speak for itself. Flaws and noticeable differences are easier to discuss than on the mark successes! 

To Add

Thrunn, Breaker of Silence

Contagious Vorrac

Slophim, Mayhem Dominus

Sheoldred's Edict 

Glissa, Sunslayer 

Rustvine Cultivator 

Armored Scrapgorger 

To Test (With High Hopes)

Tyvar's Resistance

Exuberant Fuseling 

Vrann, Executioner Thane 

Nissa, Ascended Animist 

Capricious Hellraiser 

Nahiri, the Unforgiving 

Mondrak, Glory Dominus 

Ossification 

Vraska, Betrayal's Sting 

Skrelv, Defector Mite 

Black Sun's Twilight 

Vindictive Flamestoker 

Blue Sun's Twilight

Eternal Wanderer 

Dragonwing Glider 

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines 

Cankerbloom

To Test (With Low Hopes)

Annihilating Gaze

Drivnod, Carnage Dominus

Green Sun's Twilight  

Planar Disruption 

Phyrexian Vindicator 

Tyrannax Rex 

Experimental Augury 

Bladehold War-Whip 

Kaya, Intangible Slayer 

Melira, the Living Cure

Bloated Contaminator 

Skrelv's Hive 

Urabrask's Forge 

Conduit of Worlds 

Koth, Fire of Resistance 

Singleton Constructed Only Reserves

Gleeful Demolition 

Ichormoon Gauntlet! 

Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus 

Minor Misstep

Atraxa, Grand Unifier  

Swooping Lookout 

Jawbone Duelist 

Bilious Skulldweller 

Jace, the Perfect Mind 

Venerated Rotpriest 

Phyrexia: All Will Be One Preliminary Review Part IX

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

Voidwing Hybrid 2

Fine. Cheap filler and support card in the right decks. I can imagine frankly quite oppressive in standard.

Charforger 2

The kind of card I love to play with and have in cube. Really this is just a limp Breya's Apprentice which itself is a fairly fair card in cube. This sort of thing at the very least has to be mono to be a consideration for drafting cubes these days. 

Tainted Observer 2

This has mild support applications as both an evasive toxic dork and an ongoing source of proliferate. It isn't great in any of these camps but they are at least under populated camps which gives this a glimmer of hope. 

Thrunn, Breaker of Silence 8

Non-green eh? That might as well be hexproof. I suspect in a decades time I will be able to count on one finger the number of times this gets fought and killed in my cube. So this is a five mana 5/5 uncounterable, trample, hexproof, with the not so minor perk of also being indestructible on my turn. This is basically a big green True-Name Nemesis. This attacks very very well. It blocks pretty well if you need it too. This card is an absolute monster and provides swathes of threat and reach at a nice cheap price. This card has just one weakness and that is to mass removal. You are probably down in resources even if this is the only thing a Wrath kills! When you get this and any other dorks Wrathed it is going to be brutal. Your big secure threat and mana investment gone without doing anything at all and along with everything else. True Name was polar and as such quite tedious. Thrun seems much the same. Although he is green which is a more suitable place for such a card at least. While I am not a big fan of the design I think power wise this is going to make it in cube. You pretty much have to race this and that will not be easy. Most decks do not play any mass removal and those that do are somewhat obvious. This is a threat they have to use mass removal on as there is nothing else for it so you can exploit that in how you play. I feel as if this will play a little like The Scarab God. It will flop out and become the focus of the game. And then generally win it. 

Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus 2

Not a massive fan of this one, it is too many different angles at too high a cost. On his own he is reasonable defensively but can still only block one dork so isn't exactly holding down the fort. Sure, little is getting past an 8/12, indestructible or otherwise, but again, at seven mana, I want a bit more. Titan of Industry comes with life and buddies and does a much better job of stabilizing. Zopandrel has an overrun effect which is great, that is a reasonable amount of threat but it requires you to have other dorks, and, at that point, are we not better off with an actual Overrun for two mana less? Or even just a Craterhoof for that assured kill at just one mana more. On its own Zopandrel is very poor lacking the evasion to deal any impressive damage by itself, and indeed, being intensely vulnerable to spot removal. Big old pass for me on this one. Give me God-Eternal Rhonas over this every day of the week (a card I don't have in my cube). 

All Will Be One 4

Too narrow just to play making it a build around card. Very powerful effect that is easy to abuse (and indeed has a simple (effectively) two card infinite damage combo already in Quest for Pure Flame). Not quite enough support in cube to justify inclusion. Could be nuts but is mostly going to be a do nothing or over cost Rift Bolt in limited formats. 

Serum Snare 2

Proliferate still too niche of an effect to be enough to push these close to the mark card. Nice to see this low costing of proliferate slapped on a card with tempo. 

Annihilating Gaze 2

Somewhere between Bone Shards and Bloodchief's Thirst. Ultimately rather worse than both as you have no real "cheap" mode on this one. 

Armored Scrapgorger 7

Thought I reviewed this already but now can't find it if I did! Anywho, there are lots of decent two drop mana dorks now but this is all round more than enough to be cube playable even if you don't end up running it. Good fixing, reasonable resilience, some nice scaling, and a bonus bit of disruption added into the mix. A kind of more consistent and fairer iteration of a Deathrite Shaman! Solid and healthy cube card. 

Evolved Adaptation 2

Another Experiment One style dork. Useful redundancy in the one slot if you are doing that sort of thing, but this power and style of dork is not all that any more. 

Contagious Vorrac 8

This is a lot of common. And that is in a set where the commons are closest to the power level of the other rarities of any I have seen. Really impressive commons! Here we have a 3/3 for three that usually finds you a land which puts it in the same sort of camp as Rogue Refiner and Llanowar Visionary. Just good solid tempo plays that are two for ones. The Vorrac is meaty and easily played. It is just such an ideal curve play in limited environments without ever becoming underpowered. Vorrac then goes above and beyond these other great dorks. Vorrac gives you utility, you don't have to take a land, you can always proliferate should you wish. Now this is the kind of card where that utility really is a valuable perk. The card is already great when you don't choose it so the option feels free. You can obviously do some pretty filthy things with it in the right sitaution and so it really adds a lot of late game danger and option density to the card. I look forward to surprise ultimates and all sorts of other cool and sneaky plays to come out of this guy. While hard to call this a bomb it is the kind of card it is hard not to play regardless of your build. I wonder if this redeems the name Vorrac? The Battlehorns were so very poor. Vorrac will often be fixing without the need of having loads of appropriate basics. In 40 card singleton knowing some of the cards on the bottom of your deck is not useless information and has lead me to different lines on multiple occasions. I just have nothing bad to say about this one, it is all good. I fully expect this to be one of the most highly played cards in my cube. 

Thirsty Roots 4

Much as I love the Lay of the Land plus mode cards we are getting now this does not compete well with what we have. Proliferate is both narrow and situational resulting in a card than leans mostly on the Lay of the Land aspect of the card which results in underwhelming power level and unimpressive utility. Give me fight every time! Roots is still a fine card and it has a home in many places but limited cube settings are not those places. 

Tyvar's Stand 7

This is both flexible and cheap enough to last in the cube. It is somewhat of a toss up between this and Blossoming Defence. Stand is better protection at low costs but far worse of a pump spell. Late game however Resistance can become a Fireball to the face which is quite the tasty mode to have! There is lots of interaction, lots of options, lots of tempo, and lots of reach to be had with this sneaky little card. I expect it to take a whole lot of games in the cube going forwards. Increasingly games seem to be coming down to flopping out some obnoxious card like Sheoldred and then being able to disrupt their removal attempt on that card in some manner. There is precious little removal this doesn't stop at one mana and the fantastic scaling means you are not too sad about having this sat in hand. Equally it is one of those cards that it is really gross to play against. Walking into it feels game ending, leaving it in their hand feels game ending too. All signs of a good card. 

The Fair Basilica (and the rest of the sac sphere cycle) 6

Great lands in principle, the perfect cycling land that is always a land early when you need it and still always a card late when you don't. There is never that choice or opportunity cost. These compare very favourably against the various mono coloured cycling lands but they have to compete with Triomes these days as well as the Horizon Canopy style lands. The former are obviously wildly better fixing and the latter, while not useable in all archetypes due to the life cost, do have both fixing and tempo perks all over these. Even so, the relatively small cost of EtB tapped for painless colour that you can cash in for gas further down the line is very tempting indeed. A lot of cube decks would run these. There has been a shift towards cards with good mana sinks on them meaning you are less eager to cash in lands than once was the case. There also isn't really the space to justify these quality of life cards. Sure, you might always consider playing them and sometimes you will and they will be nice to have but it will not make lots of difference overall. I would absolutely run these in budget cubes to help smooth things out but in others these will be too slow and too low impact to merit the cost in space. 

Drivnod, Carnage Dominus 6

The body is a little cumbersome and the passive is on the narrow side. In an aristocrats build this can be utterly batty. You can turn sac outlet, Orzhov Enforcer, Blood Artist into six drain instead of two! You will often be able to give Drivnod Indestructible but not always and at that point the high cost to low toughness ratio is an issue. The cost is also typically going to hurt in some way, many of your dorks recur or want to use the bin in some way. I suspect there is a little too much in the way of exile and bounce removal for Drivnod to excel in cube. He is fine but just a little too narrow. If you are pushing synergies then he is a nice tool. 

Slophim, Dominus of Mayhem 8

Torbran meets Hazoret. The cost to make this indestructible is high and the ability to do so in response to things a little hampered by the part of the mana cost you cannot substitute life for. Even so, this card is a house. High stats, scary passive, and the capacity to add indestructibility into the mix if needed. Some decks will fold to this on the spot, there will be enough sources of damage that can be instantly deployed that it is all over there and then. The old Fireblast for 8 etc. Others will just fold to this over a few turns just down to lack of answer and red cards being red. 

Phyrexia: All Will Be One Preliminary Review Part VIII

 

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

 

Feed the Infection 0

Ancient Craving etc. Lots of these around and none getting much love or doing much work. The card is fine but you can do better in black. The corrupted perk is a joke. I am unlikely to care much about life loss and poison counters, it will be one or tother...

Unnatural Restoration 2

Clearly proliferate is getting quite a push in this set. They really seem to have dropped the mana-price on having it on a card compered to any previous time we have seen the mechanic. Most notably on cards that do not provide tempo which makes sense. It is a lot easier to power creep those when the general meta trend is doing a good job of making them worse relatively speaking. Anywho, is this card good? No, Regrowth isn't and while I of course like this I struggle to think of a place I would want it. Redundancy is just better than getting a thing back to reuse. I guess if you need a draw card proliferate effect and you are not blue this has some game. 

 

Expand the Sphere 1

I like this more than most big ramp spells as you are not beholden to running basic lands sufficient to support them. This can hit duals, manlands and other utility lands, all while not being an imposition on your mana base. Where this comes unstuck is that you simply don't want proliferate as the if you miss compensation. Draw a card might get it done, but this doesn't. Six isn't deep enough to ensure you hit two consistently enough and the proliferate ensures you are pretty unhappy when you miss. I don't see this with much build around potential either as the kinds of deck wanting to proliferate are not often those looking to flop loads of lands out.  

Gleeful Demolition 4

Not really a cube card as it needs too much supporting however this will do some good work in those cute one hit go wide combo decks like 8-whack. This is better than Rebirth by a good margin and provides some really juicy redundancy for it. Easily the sort of card that either births a new archetype in a format like modern or indeed just one to make an existing archetype the hot shit for a bit. 

Hexgold Halbard 6

This is another For Mirrodin card that is real close to the mark. A two mana 2/2 with first strike and trample is decent. It works very well with any kind of buff and is fairly awkward in combat. Just an annoying little curve play. Being able to give those abilities to dorks further down the line for a mere three mana is an impressive amount of reach and utility. Overall I suspect the late game aspect is a little low power and situational to make up for a fairly low power and unexciting front end. Strong card and sufficiently so that I will test it. My expectation of this to fail to make it in most non-budget cubes is just testament to the depth and power of magic cards these days and no slight on this card. 

Vraan, Executioner Thane 7

Super Zulaport Cutthroat. Essentially both power/toughness and effect magnitude doubled. Imagine Sheoldred for 2BB that was an 8/10 and affected a 4 point life loss/gain on card draw! How much would you care about that only triggering once a turn? That isn't really a fair comparison as Sheoldred is already well statted and Cuttrhroat really isn't. Even so, with Cutthroat being a fine cube card and cube leaning more on grindy games than big one turn one shot kill you combos I reckon this guy will do fine. Not exciting, mostly a filler sort of card for the aristocrats builds. Being a vanilla 2/2 makes this pretty unimpressive in combat and thus the board in general. Equally being able to just die to basically any removal and do nothing is a bit of a turn off. I can absolutely imagine some Aristocract builds where I would just rather play a Lazotep Reaver than this.. If you support a lot of life costs in black and aristocrats this probably works in your cube, if not then it is probably not enough card. 

Planar Disruption 6

This is the boost Arrest and Pacifism needed to properly come in line with modern removal standards. This is not a bomb at all, it is fairly close to Ossification in power level. They are both two mana sorcery speed enchantment based broad removal tools. Both can be undone with enchantment removal. Disruption can deal with artifacts which is a perk for sure. It can also avoid retriggering EtB effects should it be removed which is minor. What Disruption cannot do is anything about passive effects. You are still just going to die to a Sheoldred if this is your answer. And for me, that probably rules this out for cube. Unless you have a real aura synergy thing going on this is probably a bit too dodgy for non-budget cubes. Good to see old staples getting modernized as far as power level goes though. 

Surgical Spellbomb 2

Repulse meets Aether Spellbomb and likely worse than both. This is not tricksy nor is it mana efficient in any mode. It is cheap and has some utility so it may well get some fringe play but it is not a great card. Nor are any of the Spellbombs in this set for that matter. This seems like the most rounded of the lot although the red oil counters one is probably most likely to get any significant play, just not in singleton formats. 

Exuberant Fuseling 7

A 1/1 trample for one that grows whenever you bin dorks or artifacts. Hmm. Very bad on its own or as a late game top deck but as soon as you are throwing synergy anywhere near this card it starts to look good real quick. Red is the colour of treasure and it is also the home of the Goblin Bombardment. Goblins in general love to sacrifice themselves and red dorks have this need of being killed else they kill the opponent. All in all the Fuseling looks like it stands to get fairly big and threatening fairly quickly and consistently in most cubes. It feels a bit like a Stromkirk Noble that has a wider range. Both want to be early plays and both can be lacklustre however both can also offer a lot of value and threat for one mana. Being a card in need of some support may end up hurting Fuseling too much but absolutely a card worthy not only of testing, but also one worthy of revisiting should a meta change in a favourable direction for it. 

Phyrexian Vindicator 6 (7+ really)

Power wise this is obviously there comfortably. It is overstatted for the cost and flying. It then has an ability which just utterly shuts down combat and swathes of removal spells as well. This card asks a question and if there is no answer that is generally just going to be game. It is really whether we want a WWWW card that is so polar in play patters in cube. This is not going to provide interesting options in draft and deck building nor is it going to lead to interesting game play. So, even if this is powerful enough, is it something we should be putting in cubes? Obliterator didn't pose such existential questions as mono black decks have not been so viable over the last decade in cubes. Mono white however has always been viable. I'll give this a little run but I fully expect I will be cutting this once I have had a little play regardless of how well it performs. Even takign the WWWW cost into account this is still realistically at least a 7/10 as far as cubes go, it is just the wrong sort of thing to encourage. I used to excusively balance my cube on performance as pertained to win percentage. The more I play the more I lean towards cards that encourage good games. There band of cards that are good enough for cube and not too good for cube is not only fairly thin these days, it is also fairly well padded out. Meaning, the worst card in my cube is not a lot worse than the best card, further more, there are still plenty of cards just outside that range, and also within it, that I do not have in my cube for one reason or another. It makes it increasingly easy to just skip cards like this and not feel like any disservice is being done. If this came out 10 or so years ago and I rocked up with my cube people would simply expect this card to be there and be bemused or annoyed if it wasn't. That is very much not the case any more and so I am fairly happy to not give this too much time to impose on things!

Ichormoon Gauntlet 3

This is one of those cards that gets my creative juices flowing. I want to theorize and brew with this. I want to build around it and have fun with it! Too narrow for cube but always glad to see a card that gets me excited about the game. Such cards are fewer and fewer in number these days. 

Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus 4

Looks like one of the weaker Dominus cards. A narrow passive, a relatively low impact body, and an awkward means to make it indestructible. I don't think blue wants this nor do I think it is sufficiently powerful even if it was wanted. Good fun in a proliferate deck I imagine however! This does make me want to make a commander deck that focuses on proliferate. That in itself is good design. It is doing a good job with the fundamentals that will grow the game and thus profits not messing about with slash and burn business tactics. This set has some risky and scary cards but it is also doing really well as far as being exciting and alluring and that feels like another win in general. If a card can get me playing commander that has to count for a lot! 

Phyrexia: All Will Be One Preliminary Review Part VII

 

Staff of Compleation 1

Over cost and hard to use a lot due to life requirements. Not sure where you might want a card like this other than EDH. There is a lot of functionality so I am certain people will put it to use. I am a lot less confident that those people will find winning uses for it in cube settings however....

Minor Misstep 3

Isn't this what Prince Andrew got into all that bother over? This is no Mental Misstep that is for sure, and something to be thankful of! A broader range might seem nice but the difference in mana cost from 0 to 1 is always going to blow target range out of the water for power level. Minor Misstep is much more in the camp of Nix (shocker!) and Spell Snare. While it is a lot more playable in cube than Nix it is still less playable than Spell Snare as well as a lot less powerful. The best you can do with Misstep is go 1 for 1 on all resources while Snare lets you get a mana advantage. Snare also doesn't blow hard when on the draw which is an issue here too. This could do very well in formats like modern and legacy where one drops dominate however in cube they are too low value and infrequent to invest in a card like this. 

Mesmerizing Dose 2

Another attempt to lure me into a card with proliferate! These sort blue removal auras are not really good enough. The random janky proliferate isn't going to change that sadly. Removal is never where you want your bolt on perks to be located. 

Vanish into Eternity 2

Really cool design but I think one mana somewhere too costly to be viable. 

Tyrannax Rex 5

A better designed version of Carnage Tyrant thanks to ward generally being a better mechanic than hexproof as far as gameplay goes. Also thanks to haste giving Rex a bit of immediate impact and sorcery speed mass removal play around. While this is a solid green threat with a lot of muscle and reach I fear it is too far up the curve. Worth a test but I can't see why I am not just playing cheaper cards to this in my decks and cubes. It is not like I am shy of options if I want hard hitting stats or hard to interact with bodies. This certainly doesn't seem like a poison card and so the toxic isn't needed for this to be good but it is a small help even when played with no other sources of poison. 

Capricious Hellraiser 7

The ceiling on this is mental. A RRR 4/4 flier is a very tidy starting place. A free spell on the back of that gets pretty outrageous. That could be Ugin?! It could be Ruinous Ultimatum. And it really doesn't need to be. A humble two mana spell on the back of your high tempo threat is going to be really swingy. This card feels very Bloodbraid Elf to me! I had gotten myself all ready to poo poo this now based on it being too hard to consistently get 9 cards in the bin however this is still pretty foolish as a six drop. Especially if you have some control over your own graveyard. You need to hit a good card for this to be worth six mana but it doesn't have to be outrageous. Any planeswalker or really most three or more mana spells. Like, I am very happy with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Fiery Confluence, Outpost Seige, Burn Down the House, a Chandra etc. Red being red you should be able to consistently hit a shock at the very least and a 4/4 flyer with an EtB Shock is not the worst floor. Considering the various upsides this can offer it feels worth testing. I suspect a bit narrow and random for my liking but it would be remis to fully overlook. Certainly I think it packs more than enough average power to overcome slight narrow and random limitations. 

Sword of Forge and Frontier 4

As far as the design of the Sword I like it. It is very on flavour and I like the way the abilities complement each other. It is an elegant Sword. It is still however a Sword and even Fire and Ice is starting to look pretty tired in cube. Tired and never really something that played too well. Protection is just a sucky ability and randomly owns games. I am glad we are in a world were less of these things plague formats. This is a fine card but it is unlikely to get much cube love with there being so many Swords to chose from, a clear best that isn't this, and a dwindling demand for them....

Swooping Looking 2

Boring but some deck will want this as support somewhere along the line. 

Jawbone Duelist 2

Quite good for poison decks if they happen to be white. This is cheap and can apply a lot of counters fairly quickly while being a little trickier than your usual customer to block. 

Noxious Assault 1

This would be cool with infect creatures but with toxic ones the pump is rather less impressive. Odd design. Cool in some ways but seemingly missing the point in others. Not a cube card regardless. 

Bilious Skulldweller 3

Sure, these things pair up nicely and result in a good one drop in a collection of toxic, poison, and/or deathtouch builds. If you are black and need a one drop with the right key words this is going to be there for you! A classic cheap filler card. 

Phyrexia: All Will Be One Preliminary Review Part VI

 

Nahiri, the Unforgiving 7

Finally a three mana walker in Boros colours. Just waiting on Selesnya now to get one of these. Nahiri isn't all that in terms of power but it is none the less pretty welcome. Boros colours are fantastic at supporting walkers, and indeed the payment of life costs if needed! Nahiri is decent at protecting herself with a high loyalty count and a +1 that ensures the most threatening dork in play attacks your face rather than hers. Mostly Nahiri is a loot station, or rummage station, that powers out any other yard based stuff while ensuring good consistency. If good consistency isn't enough to take the game her 0 ability should be able to apply a good amount of pressure in the mid to late game. I think this is a weaker card than the Royal Scions while being fairly similar overall. Even so, I think Boros hungers for this sort of thing enough that it will last decently in cubes. I like the card overall too, a nice design for a Boros walker and a nice safe way to implement a walker that can cost three or four mana. 

Mondrak, Glory Dominus 7

This is going to be a valuable card in this set. Being an Annionted Procession is a big deal for EDH and one that can be a commander too! Popular this will be. Powerful it is too, such that it may well wind up being a player in standard. It is cheap to turn it indestructible and can be done in response to things giving this some real game. It is a bit the best of both worlds, you don't have to use the ability but it will often feel like you have regardless. Double tokens in cube is nice, it works with a lot of stuff but it is too narrow and effect by itself. The big deal is coming on a meaty 4/4 for four that can become indestructible. That all adds up to being a lot of card. Very reminiscent of the gods from Theros. I expect this to be a solid cube card and a fun one. Play wise this is probably on the line as so many cards are, it is the fact that it is fun and cool too that will help this last in the cube. 

Jace, the Perfect Mind 7

Awkward. Mill cards are not balanced around 40 card lists and as such play all kinds of wrong. This Jace is threatening because it can mill out way too easily. As a means of drawing cards or controlling the board this card is fine. Perhaps clearing the bar for cube power level but only just if so. It is the mill three and the mill 3X that will just make this a very tedious card in cube. It will end a lot of close long games out of nowhere and so I am disinclined to even test this. Sure, it is probably fine, an OK and rounded walker that can also just win the late game. If you want to force fast acting games then this will be fine, it might not even be good enough. If however you want nice close games they will often be slower and this will not enhance your experience. Probably this is a little worse than Narset (3) and a little better than Architect of Thought. 

Slaughter Singer 2

Build around toxic low curve support. Good in that one potential place... A lot of cards will be coming in that category from this set it would seem. 

Annex Sentry 5

Nice high toughness is cool here. Hitting multiple permanent types and only being a single white mana all appeal as far as this kind of dork goes. The toxic is fairly irrelevant. The cap on CMC for exile targets however is not and is likely too problematic for this to get much cube love. The card is fine and will hit most things and do what you want it to a lot but those key times you really need to clear a big Glorybringer or whatever and can't will just render this unplayable in contrast to the alternatives, despite the perks this comes with. 

Experimental Augury 7

This might be peak excitement. It is a proliferating card quality spell. It is all my favourite things and it is reasonably well pushed. Anticipate is fine, it is playable. Instant speed proliferate can do quite a lot of work. The problem with most proliferate cards is when they fail to do any useful work the floor of the rest of the card is unacceptably low. Here it is not and so we might finally have a cube playable proliferate card! Happy days. This is no bomb, and it is quite polar. Blue is also a trickier place than most to get much back from proliferate, so this is not a card for every cube. I am a bit too into my proliferate to be cutting this anytime soon. Much more the sort of thing I will try and support more so that it looks better!

Bladehold War Whip 6

I don't much like this but it does seem good in a very cube sort of way. A 3 mana 2/2 doublestrike is OK. Below the curve but not by a lot and very threatening and on theme for a Boros card. The equip text is minor but the ability to reequip once your token is dead is significant. It will let you turn a lot of things into real threats. I am probably slightly overrating that as I am old and mana sinks used to be hard to come by. These days paying five mana to give a dork doublestrike is a big old risky investment and not exactly an efficient one. All in all this can't have the power level to make it, especially being cheap and gold, but it is certainly very close to there and should absolutely be looked at for those budget cubes. 

Atraxa, Grand Unifier 5

Somewhere between Niv Mizzet Reborn and Muldrotha the Gravetide exists this Atraxa. In some cheat in decks this will do a very good impression of Grisselbrand. Even on just one hit Atraxa will hit fewer cards total than a Griseldaddy pop but she will hit some gas a bit more reliably, and critically not at life cost. Atraxa is too pricey to be good in cube if you are not cheating her into play. She is too much value and not enough board control or finishing power for a card that far up the curve, let alone that gold. EDH is obviously the main employer of this card, with a little bit of moonlighting in cool combo decks going on as well. Also - battle eh? Buffs to delirium and Goyf incoming! Lets see quite how cheaply we can cast an Emrakul for etc...

Sheoldred's Edict 7.5

A two mana Edict given a quite necessary push to bring it in line with current removal needs and standards. Soul Shatter had just about become too weak for cube and Sheoldred's End looks to be a reasonable replacement. It is not better as such, just being cheaper is a big deal. This Edict is a good planeswalker removal tool and a great early game removal spell. It is in the mid game where you will have to work a bit at having it be good removal. When you need to kill a 3-5 drop but all this is doing is killing a 1-2 drop then your card is a sad card. Soul Shatter didn't have a very high ceiling but it kept a reasonable floor thanks to the highest CMC stipulation. Sheoldred's Edict has nothing like that and so the floor on it is still a bit shakey. I do not see myself using it to kill tokens very often but it is nice to be able to specify. Mostly it is nice that there is a non-token creature mode. It is the prevalence of tokens in cube that has kept most Edicts non-viable. Removal is certainly increasing in value in cube with the utter brutality of most creatures. The ability to select and tune your removal suite is welcome and this will help a lot on that front. Getting around ward and other protection effects was always one of the biggest draws to Edict effects, and those protective abilities are on the rise alongside removals increased popularity. I expect this to get enough play and perform fine. It is not that much better than the many iterations of Go for the Throat, if at all. It is however sufficiently different and interesting without having to compromise too much on anything to be a popular cube card.

Ossification 7

Seems clean and solid. This is On Thin Ice (or at least the way I allow the use of snow land in my cube) but it has the ability to hit planeswalkers too. This isn't top tier removal but it is very playable indeed. It is likely better than Fateful Absence for a more proactive deck and likely a little worse for a control deck. What is so good in cube about removal like this is that while it undulates above and below a card like Fateful Absence in power level based on where you play them you can still play these cards in all the various archetypes. Cheap, broad, reliable removal. Fantastic. Yes, this can be undone with the very few instances of enchantment removal in cubes, or the even fewer instances of things that blow up basic lands. And no, it is not instant, or flash or whatever. For a card this cheap and broad however I would not expect anything like that. This just gets the job done and lets you carry on playing the good game of magic. The card itself isn't good and exciting but it lets you have your excitement with your other good fun cards and so that is a win. Dull cards - the unsung champions of good games.