Ra Brings Ruin (reworking)
Power 8
Design 4
A third print run card designed to increase the number of sweepers that could threaten artifacts and enchants. In practice this is too versatile and cost effective. The escalate is going to be increased to 2 more than likely so as to stop it being so mana efficient. The card is pretty playable in any setting as it stands, making it a bit tedious.
Ra, Sun God (reworking)
Power ?
Design 5
This is in the process of a significant rework. The card design is reasonable, the power was even OK, it is just that the play pattern felt a little off balance. Mostly this is just an Anthem that is annoying to remove. That is uninteractive and dull. I wanted a card that was more than just that. As such the rework is mostly making this a four drop and lowering the devotion requirements. I may have a bit more of a tweak so as to keep the power level calm. White will already play this because they are Anthem hungry, we don't need to over push the other bits! I quite like the flavour of this card but it isn't all that exciting to play with.
Rabble Boss
Power 5
Design 5
No, he is the Rabble Boss, not the Rabble Master, he is a whole other guy. This kind of dork just feels like a cornerstone thing red does in cubes. Rabblemaster is now looking like an old creature in cubes, one of those few pre insane power creep dorks that is holding out against the tide! Anywho, this is just me trying to make a simple Rabblemaster style card. This is a little safer and a little less snowbally. The issue is you kindof want these cards to quickly end a game and so my making this "safer" has actually made it less fit for purpose. This is a card I mostly want to play in sac decks, it isn't super exciting as an aggro or value card.
Rainbow
Power 5
Design 9
Love this one. Very elegant. Super green. Lots of cool little things you can do with this, my favourite being a conduit through which to turn powerstone mana into more useful mana. Or, you can just use it to help fix your colours in any old deck. This adds choices, it adds consistency, and it does so while being highly amicable. This is how I want my support cards. A thing of beauty as well!
Rager (reworking)
Power 8
Design 4
Although Phyrexian Rager is due a little boost, this is a bit much. I am going to make this a 1/1 which likely isn't enough either, not like Deathtouch cares. I could go for a 2/2 menace but that is a well trodden path. Regardless of how I do it, this has to change. It is too generically good and thus does things like removing choice in deckbuilding. There is also something a bit off with the aesthetic somehow, it doesn't look like it is a magic card and I can't exactly place why. Perhaps the D&D art? Perhaps I'll just permanently cut this guy and stick the protection from tokens on a more deserving card in black.
Rakdos Confluence
Power 8
Design 6
This is a pretty big pull to the colour pair which is what gold should be. It also feels appropriate for Rakdos and has a very crisp clean design. Absolutely can be devastating and has won a lot of games. Equally, in the face of a pile of tokens this is a bit shit and you wish it was Pyroclasm! Mostly it sits at the good end of the spectrum. You pretty much always get to kill their best things and so even when their things are not very good you are still typically getting both value and tempo. More one sided mass removal feeling than over priced spot removal. At instant speed it would be oppressive but at sorcery it is fine, especially if you are aware of it. I can see an argument to take this to 2BBRR in cost but as yet that has not felt necessary.
Rampant Planting
Power 7
Design 8
This is the Explore of the set. Two mana ramp in green that gets you land and can work with non-basics. It is certainly powerful but it isn't directly better than Explore or even Rampant Growth. This does not reliably fix you as Growth does, nor can it just cycle for a card late game. This is just clean, simple, and fair. Very happy to have nabbed this piece of open design real estate. The only thing I don't like about this is that it doesn't have a keyword for this effect. I used it a lot, it is not unlike "seek" from online, and it is a great tool but takes up rather more card space than I would like.
Ran and Shaw (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
Broodmate Dragon gone mono coloured and given some supremely scary firebreathing. This badboy ends games pretty fast. No answer and it is pretty much untap and win. Swinging for 8 un-pumped and effectively getting +2/+0 per R there after is easily 20 in a mono red deck. Just killing off the token isn't always enough to stop this one shotting people. I will move the cost of the pump to at least 1R. It is good to have six drops that threaten to end the game but this will still absolutely do that even if toned down a bit.
Ranking Officer
Power 5
Design 6
Great fun little utility dork. A flicker effect of sorts. You can jsut run this as a reasonably hefty beater in any weenie deck with enough one drops and be happy of the potential for incidental value in the late game. The other use is as a flicker card that gives a bit more board presence in disposable stats while you mess around reusing EtB triggers! Technically you can bounce this guy to get ongoing EtB triggers on other cards but that hasn't proven to be dangerous or exciting as yet. If it does there is a chance this guy needs a spot of tidying up.
Rat Hat Cataphract
Power 8
Design 6
This wasn't broken but it had a real Fable of the Mirrorbreaker feel to it. The card is just a bit of a three for one. Yes, they are always losing their worst things, be that duds in hand or chaff in play, but they are losing resources. Often actual cards. You get some board presence for your three mana and you make things a little awkward. They don't want to kill your guy ideally until they are setup to do so. The flanking makes him pretty annoying to block as well, to actually kill him off you need at least a 2/2 and to survive to tell the tale we are looking at 2/4 minimum. All really tedious. This just found itself getting near universal play where the BB cost was supported. There was little reason not to when some advantage was near assured and there was so little downside. I cut this to make some more testing room for other cards. This plays fine, it is a lot of fun to say, but it got too much play and closed the door on some more fringe cards I wanted to see in action. I am not sure how to make this weaker without ruining it. Being so fun to say and on that basis alone I do want this in the homemade cube!
Ratbag Hag (reworking)
Power 3
Design 3
Unbelievably the inspiration for this was Ophiomancer... The mark was missed rather substantially there. This is too vulnerable without providing sufficient board control. Get this Shocked having only put out a single -1/-1 counter and it doesn't feel good. You feel behind. Hag doesn't just dodge removal poorly, it blocks poorly too. A counter a turn is too slow to slow beats. This needs more. I am wary of making it too good as it could quickly become dull and oppressive but I suspect we have reasonable wiggle room before we get there. I could slap a bit of ward on to protect the small body and allow it to deal out counters more consistently. I think that makes it more tedious but I don't think it makes the card good enough and so it seems like a poor solution. I might try and find a way to work proliferate into the card somehow as that has some great applications beyond this card while working quite nicely with it. I may also look to use forage and/or squirrel tokens because of the art. Seems kind of reasonable. Just need to figure out what. The resultant card is going to be a fairly different beast to the failed experiment we have below.
Rathi Scout
Power 7.5
Design 6
This surprised me with how good it is although it probably shouldn't have. Here we have a card that is both value and threat. It comes down early and is essentially unblockable. Then it is either growing and giving card quality, like a Slith Looter combo, or it is directly drawing you lands. Either is good, both is good. You generally want a mix, ensure you hit your lands drops and get a bit of real card value banked but also have developed a bit of a relevant threat. Get this two a 2/3 and it is looking awkward for your planeswalkers and life total! A card with a lot of strings to its bow. Good in its own right but also a very strong support card for almost anything you could want to do. It can feel a bit like getting slapped down by Smugglers Copter.
Rattlebones (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
One of the better payoffs for having some graveyard synergies, or indeed sacrifice synergies. I like how this card functions but rather need to tone it down, I think by making the return trigger happen at the end of turn, or the dork enter tapped. It is all just a bit too easy to use this as fodder then get it back and ready for action immediately. All the changes I can think of somewhat render the haste useless other than when cast from hand, which is probably reasonable mechanically, it might just be confusing to parse as a new player. Haste isn't really an undead ability either, quiet the opposite.
Reading the Aether
Power 6
Design 6
An Impulse like card that has the nice added perk of working with energy. A lot of the time this is just gain three energy and draw a card. Paying energy to scry is not that good of a return and so only used when there is little else to spend it on or you really need to dig for something. I like how this card is perfectly playable without any other energy payoffs and better with them but absolutely decent and reasonable either way. A relatively low power card but a high value support card.
Rear Guard
Power 5
Design 6
This is pretty emblematic of my design. Fix cards and increase their option density with cycling. Make every Savannah Lion possible... This card plays well, it does what you need it to do, supports archetypes well, and does so without being a very powerful card. Where this does have some issue is that it is a little dull. This is just a card you round off decks with, it is never an exciting card. It is a solution to a situation, a smoothing of things, but it s real hard to get excited about. It doesn't even do that much in terms of play. Much as I love a 2/1 and think they are a cornerstone of the game, they are fairly simple to appreciate in terms of combat and what we are doing with them.
Recalled Whisper (cut)
Power 5
Design 7
The black Ancestral and my oh my is this card shockingly reasonable. I was so sure this was going to be broken in some way. The most broken this has been is to unmulligan. Go to five, drop a Swamp and this and be back on your way. Next best use is in a normal game as a kind of power Brainstorm on turn one. Swamp, draw three, discard down to seven. A kindof Brainstorm come Faithless Looting that is very good if you have bin synergies and decent enough without. The effective echo cost and loss of there life kept this turn one play fine. And because it was just fine early it wound up not seeing quite enough play. Mid to late this is pretty dodgy. The effective cost is large, you have to spend effectively all your mana for a turn to use this. Expensive. Quickly a lot lot worse than Harmonize. Usually cycled and even then, pretty costly to do and as such pretty dead weight in hand. Wild as it seems, this got cut for not being good enough. Obviously still far too easily abused to be something you could print into real magic too leaving it in a weird limbo.
Recce
Power 8
Design 6
A very popular Lay of the Land indeed. A cheap two for one that also helps with fixing. It is hard to get more consistency from a card without it being clearly broken. With this you hit your land drops and your colours. Isn't even bad in a flood. I am inclined to make one of the abilities a mana more to use, there is rather too little downside to this card. The cycling probably makes more sense too but I don't really want to. I like when games are consistent. I have a lot of tools to get lands and so while this is very very good in the context of real magic it is a lot more reasonable in my format chock full of land cyclers and incidental card quality.
Reckless Researcher (cut)
Power 5
Design 4
Support, synergy, payoff. This guy does a lot but it is a little low powered and overly narrow. Rather than the big loots it should probably just be draw a card. That would entice more. Regardless, this is not the best use of a gold slot and so it is unlikely to last in either guise. This is a filler gold card in that I am happy enough with it in the format if I need to balance the numbers but as soon as it is not needed to balance things or a more interesting card comes along this is gone.
Reckoning (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
A rather high powered mass removal spell. Very easy to have this wipe away all your problems while leaving you things. Capable of handling dorks and walkers too for additional safety. It usually does what you need it to at four mana on curve and come the late game it gives extreme control. I am a fan of this card but would like to knock it down a peg in terms of power. Upping the white intensity is reasonable in terms of the small knock I would like to give it but I fear it might push it too narrow. The only other option is to make the escalate 2 instead of 1 which might also be reasonable. This is a card that midrange and even some aggro decks have used, which I am not averse to but I would rather it be that way without being above average power level too. This is also very much sharing design space with Ra Brings Ruin and so it is very possible one of these gets the axe once I have sufficient mass removal options in white I am happy with.
Recruitment Officer (retuning)
Power 4
Design 5
While this is fine it is something white otherwise does a lot of, and well. There are no shortages for ways to make tokens and this is just a dull mid level, mid power dork with little else going for it. To bring this more in line it should likely have battlecry or exalted or mentor or something of that ilk. I could also make it 3W to deploy and that would help it a little too. Cards like this fall a little by the wayside as it isn't desperately underpowered, it is still playable. It is that combo of lots of redundancy and mediocre power that really ensure it just floats about doing not all that much.
Recycling Facility (reworking)
Power 3
Design 4
This is playable but not great. You have to be pretty sure your deck size is consistently going to be an issue to want to run this and that is not something I want to be the case often enough to merit this. First fix to this is just a bump in power and utility by allowing it to target any graveyard. If it still isn't getting it done then there is probably a way to make the fixing a bit more useful too.
Red Energy Field
Power 7.5
Design 6
One of the most convoluted cards I designed. It does at least do a reasonable job of being several cards in one and thus somewhat justifying the complexity. First mode this is a Pyroclasm that can scale up with energy you might have. Playable anywhere you might want some little creature control, energy or otherwise. Then there is the mode where it sticks around and you get drip fed your fuel. Here it is one of the premium energy deck control tools. A kind of Pestilence or Pyrohemia that is well suited to control. It gets used in both modes and is very effective in the latter. There are a few ways you can build energy decks, in the slower ones this is one of your best cards. Originally this could be used at instant speed and that made it pretty oppressive as far as control tools go!
Red Mana Crystal (cut)
Power 4
Design 4
Conceptually I quite like these but in practice they are just a bit unnecessarily narrow. Of the four two mana coloured mana rocks this seems the weakest, it is effectively two mana to give something haste which means it is well off curve. There is nothing too wrong with this, it gets the job done but it just doesn't do it as well as better suited and designed cards would. The only thing that would mitigate this situation is being fun and this is not a fun card, it is a mana rock. All be it, one this gives off real dog penis vibes.
Red Red Ruin
Power 7
Design 7
Earthquake is a bit annoying because it doesn't hit fliers, a bit ineffective on curve as it can't hit dorks with toughness equal to your mana, and a little unsuited as a control tool due to slapping you in the face. Here is Earthquake fixed in all those regards. You could even argue this was a cleaner spell. I really like how this came out. A good level of power with both pros and cons over more conventional Wraths found outside of red. The card also feels very red being damage based and controlled by and X. Red control decks run this and are happy about it. Red midrange decks also often run this and are typically glad of having done so. Without combo in a cube the value of mass removal and the variety of archetypes that pack them all increase. This is a decent card in a format very well suited to it.
Reinforce or Resupply (cut)
Power 5
Design 3
I was trying to create a white feeling Abundant Harvest but I didn't much like the outcome. There is a lot of jank on this card for what should be a simple little effect. I have since found a more appealing way to design a card like this in my incantation cycle. They are cleaner than this and also more widely useful. Just all round better. This is an OK power level, it is just a bit jarring, it doesn't feel like a magic card and that is not where we want to be,
Refute
Power 8
Design 6
I filled up a fair number of the gold slots in my cube by simply making crisp clean removal that is slightly above rate. This is a super strong removal spell that you wouldn't want to print in many settings outside of for a cube. I found it quite hard to find the line on gold cards between being better than mono coloured cards without being too good auto include cards. There is a lot more wiggle room in spot removal, it is much less of a problem when it is a bit above rate, especially when in limited singleton. Giving this to the most aggressive colour pair while also giving it a life concession was a bit mean and slightly lowers the playability. It does at least add a tiny bit of interest and tension which the card sorely needs. Ideally I think I would avoid filling up my gold slots with cheap removal that you are likely always playing when you can. They have a lot going for them and made for a reasonable starting off point but overall I think the format will be healthiest with as much removal as possible in the mono colours. This is exactly the sort of card I am happy running to pad out numbers and ensure balance but will equally happily drop for a more fun alternative as soon as there is one.
Relentless Pursuit (retuning)
Power 3
Design 4
Intended as support for the prowess decks but this is just not packing enough punch. Prowess decks wish to be quick, five mana for draw two is quite the opposite. This card isn't unplayable, it is even cute in some artifact synergy decks. But it is filler, and low power filler at that. I really like it but I fear trying to make it good is just going to make it messy. Instant would be a starting point but not enough. Phyrexian mana to play could be fun but is then looking like it isn't a real card. I think surveil 1 is the plan to try and push this making it actually do something early and support graveyard plans as well as artifact ones.
Relentless Rummaging (cut)
Power 3
Design 5
I was a touch concerned this might be too powerful. Turns out the card disadvantage and wanton burning through of the library were not what any deck desired. Absolutely this is the kind of card that could get real dangerous with the right support and payoff. Stick this with a Life from the Loam and you are off to the races! I could probably have made this loot and not rummage and still have it be fine but when Faithless Looting is a banned card in modern one has to be lading well on the side of caution. I will be leaving it as it is and retesting it alongside things that want to be in the bin as and when I have them and see how that looks.
Relic of Feldon
Power 6
Design 6
Standard cheap atifact graveyard disruption that can be cycled away. Main difference here is that this puts to bottom rather than exiling allowing it more varied applications. Quite happy with how this plays and the role it performs. Useful tool that does do an impressive amount of work in the longer games. The yard is just such an important resource for a lot of decks.
Relic of Tormod (cut)
Power 4
Design 4
Somewhere between Tormod's Crypt and Nihil Spellbomb lies this little card. This is fine, it does what you need it to but it is really a sideboard card and they never play well in cube. It is also a real mess to look at. You need reminder text on the mana symbols, they are impossible to differentiate between black, white and colourless. This was a cut because it was messy and not easy to parse, it played pretty well and did what was asked of it pretty effectively.
Replacement Thought
Power 8
Design 8
As far as hard counters go this is not the most hated. Modelled on Arcane Denial and Dismiss. This is powerful but not egregious. This gets a lot of play, that low blue intensity makes it fine in light blue decks and that low cost with no restriction hard counter quality make it something every deck is able to use effectively. At UU this would still be fine but you would see it rather less. Much as I could nerf this a bit I am happy leaving it as one of the best and most played counters because people don't mind it as much as most other counters.
Research Mage
Power 7
Design 6
Where Sakura Tribel Elder and Preordain meet. A pretty strong little chump. Perfectly playable most places. It is great for trading 2 for 1 against 2/1 dorks. I could swap the sac and the dies effects round to mitigate that a bit. So far not a massive problem as the card is mostly just filler. All be it very good filler.
Restoration Shaman
Power 6
Design 6
This thing was a little oppressive and kept finding infinite combos and so it has had a couple of toning downs applied to it. Still a pretty useful card but rather more limited to energy or landfall decks now and not just generically playable. While on paper this looks very tame it would seem that recursion effects are especially powerful in the format. Being able to reuse key cards is a good way to crack open a game. Almost universally the various Regrowth and Resurrection cards have taken some degree of down tuning.
Restoration Shaman Class (reworking)
Power 9
Design 5
I quite like the purity of this card in that is just feeds you an ongoing supply of the three game resources. This version is way too good. Subsequent nerfed versions have been too good as well. The balance on later costs is so hard to get right when the first mode is a mana supply. I fear I need to rejig the abilities order to be able to get this right. Anything at 3 mana to start a return of 2 mana a go is over powered but jump to 4 mana and the card gets real clunky. It was weird how this card won, just very clearly did more and pulled ahead on all metrics. Slowly but surely. It was also horrific to play against, felt like such an uphill battle. I imagine this is still a few iterations away from getting there.
Restore
Power 7
Design 6
This now exiles itself so as to prevent endless looping with other cards. It wasn't too powerful but because of the cycling it was very playable, which in turn did lead to it randomly being oppressive. Self exile doesn't stop it getting play but it does stop the oppressive aspects and so we are all pretty happy. Recursion is great in singleton and nice on a value spell as they tend to be the last things you play. Regrowth effects also scale best with time, the longer you hold off using them the more powerful they will be. Rolling your value and your recursion into the same package is very nice indeed. This thing isn't directly better than Harmonize and fills a role not dissimilar however I prefer this in almost every way. It feels more green. Is more pointed. More interesting, and naturally a bit safer thanks to cycling.
Restraining Order
Power 8
Design 7
Part bounce spell, part Oblivion Ring. This is an odd, different, and yet still very white feeling removal spell. The power here is pretty impressive. You can remove something from the board for three mana at instant speed. Two if desperate. For them to get their card out again they not only need to remove the Restraining Order as you would with an Oblivion Ring, they also have to recast their thing. This has speed and trickery advantages over Ring, it has mana and utility advantages too thanks to the evoke. It has mana disadvantages for the opponent thanks to needing a recast. The only thing Oblivion Ring actually has going for it over this is when you have other uses for cards in hand such as looting effects. If you can turn your card in hand into a resource then you mitigate the downsides of this somewhat. Even so, this is lower risk than Ring and on average quite a lot better. One of the most rounded removal spells in the format. Deceptively good. It feels like a kind of Unexpectedly Absent affair, soft removal at a glance. That is a misread or a bias at play, it is far firmer than such things. This couldn't exist outside of singleton, the card would be oppressive. I am not unhappy with it sitting atop the pile of broad rang spot removal in the homemade cube. White should be leading such things and this is at least quite the interesting card. If it were to become a bit too much I think I would just up the white intensity to a 1WW affair. It is unlikely to ever be considered oppressive, it is nominally three mana and will at best go 1 for 1 with things. Cards like this keep you in the game, they are a necessary insurance policy, but they rarely put you ahead when using them. Mostly they stop the opponent pulling further away.
Retribution
Power 7
Design 7
Solar Blaze was pretty rubbish but very on theme for Boros. This felt like the appropriate way to upcycle Solar Blaze and make it cube worthy power wise and a bit more interesting play wise. This still has all the same issues with not being a reliable Wrath when dealing with X/>X dorks that Blaze has. And no, neither are offset by your ability to play dorks that survive it in cube. If you are in the market for Wraths you want them to work. You are expecting to be behind on board and so you just don't want to risk things living. Damage based removal does at least let you top it up. This is OK with spot removal as it is quite cheap. This thing costs a lot and is very hard to add to. Rebound gives you this window to apply extra burn which is quite nice. The main perk here however is of course having back to back sweeping effects. Often the window to strike at a control player with your big finishing punch is when they tap out for a mass removal effect. This makes such lines a lot harder to tread and ideally doesn't want to be creature based. Combined these perks make Retribution a better control mass removal spell than most of the 4 mana Wraths in the set. This is one of those cards that gold really suits, especially Boros. It keeps the card getting about the right amount of play before it starts to annoy people or be oppressive. It is an enticing pull to a colour pair and results in some interesting draft and construction choices. I was against the heavy handed nature I gave good spot removal spells to the gold section but the various mass removal spells felt like a great include and way to use gold slots.
Revert
Power 8
Design 6
Temporal Spring but made instant and unable to hit lands. Simic struggles in cubes without combo, it either splashes for removal and resembles a multi colour green deck more than a Simic deck, or it gets bodied by things it can't answer. I wanted to ensure this wasn't a problem in my homemade cube so I pushed some removal that was colour appropriate. This got the job done, it is top tier spot removal. The kicker ensures it can function like actual hard removal when needed rather than just a tempo play. I should probably have made the kicker two mana as this card is pretty ubiquitous. Anything getting that much play should be knocked down a peg. I am a little reluctant to do that at a point where Simic is still under played and underperforming relative to other colour pairs.
Revolting Rabble
Power 7
Design 8
One of the cards born of trying to use adventure to support situational mechanics. Revolt being the mechanic in need of a cube crutch here. The flavour followed the mechanic name and the rest of the design followed top down from that. I am real happy with the result. The art is perfect. The flavour is on point and the card plays in an interesting way. There are a lot of ways you can use this and a lot of value to be had from it. There is value so as to appeal to control and midrange, there is EtB stuff for the flicker gang, and then there is just stats land consistency for the beatdown team. This gets a healthy amount of play and performs how I like cards to. It feels good when you cast it but it rarely feels unfair or broken from the other side of the table. The really nice kind thing about this card is that should you not have your 3rd land you can play the adventure on this with your two mana, then the following turn play this with the treasure and go find more lands to deploy. I love a card that lets you comfortably keep two land hands.
Rewilder
Power 6
Design 6
I had cut a few mana dorks and felt like I wanted a bit more in the way of options for that role. Much as you normally just want direct and uncomplicated for this sort of thing I did up the exotic level a bit here. This being a third print run card I am looking more for interest and less for filler. I have enough mana dorks, I am looking for better in some way, not just more of the same. This adds a little spice with some fortifications and big land synergy but comes at the cost of needing some support. I was trying to find ways to sneak in more reshuffle effects and for that I rather like this card. It is a bit Arbor Elf but it is ticking a lot of the right boxes. It is more akin to Deathrite Shaman in terms of playbility than it is Arbor Elf which is the main thing. It certainly doesn't have the power but we are trying to make good cube cards here, and those are ones that are not over burdening you with support needs. This could get a buff somewhere along the line but I am happy with it for now.
Rigby, of the North
Power 7
Design 4
The -1/-0 effect to dorks is very blue and I wanted to represent it in the set. It is however unplayable by itself and a bit (see Dampening Pulse and Cumber Stone). Planeswalkers are the place for such things it would seem and so I attempted it. This is a little too good in the wrong kind of ways. The effect is polar, ruinous against going wide decks, mediocre against decks packing a bit more fat, and do nothing at all against the decks that are sufficiently dork light. That kind of polarity is not a good starting point for a card. It is also mildly problematic that this can do useful things, grow in loyalty and shrink your attack. Architect of Thought might no longer have the minerals for cube but he is a much better designed card. Probably this should be 0 to draw, and then have another + ability that doesn't do very much, like a mill or something. At least the Illusions are not bothering people too much and are nicely fair! Planeswalkers are a highly responsive card and their balance is far more sensitive to the format than other types of cards. As such the fine tuning on them is going to be best left until last.
Rimjaw, Twice-Born
Power 8
Design 4
One of those game ending cards. Bam, out he comes and all the things die, then he slaps you in the face till you die. It can be a bit disheartening to play against. You just went from winning to losing. Not actually losing requires you to kill a 5/5 flier and should you manage that they then can just Wrath all the dudes again and five you in the face for a laugh too. You do want some exceedingly brutal cards just at the mana threshold for your format, the kind of Ugin the Spirit Dragon of five years ago sort of thing. Sadly I am not sure that 7 is the fringe yet in my somewhat slower pace format. Ideally I can speed things up a bit and get this to where I want it in terms of relative power. Seven should be prohibitive to decks unless they work at it in some way. While this isn't oppressive yet it hasn't been a card I would describe as that fun. Presently game winning cards are a bit of a bottleneck and so this is pretty welcome on that front. It is also much more the sort of thing you should be doing with a gold card slot so it has that going for it too.
Ringer, Capashen Saint
Power 6
Design 6
A fairly dull little white weenie planeswalker. Perfectly rounded to play anywhere. This gives you mild value and consistency getting you plains and protects itself and "threatens" by churning out tokens. A little low tempo for the aggro players and a little low impact for the more midrange. The relatively low power this walker has is offset by working so suitably in so many places. You just play it and it does its thing. I like the emblem here a lot. It is weighted nicely such that it feels like a nice reward and a pretty punchy one without being busted or unattainable. It is still fairly hard to reach with Ringer starting on 2 on only able to grow once a turn. Still, if you pop this out on turn three, churn out 3 dorks then make an Anthem you are in a pretty good place. Some very Wedding Announcement vibes, which is a very strong card in a more powerful format.
Ripstain, Hulking Sulk
Power 6
Design 8
Big meaty boy that is a right royal pain to play. Drop this on turn two, the earliest it is sensibly playable, and you only have one mana on turn three to play with. Yes, this is a lot of stats and keywords for the mana. Ripstain puts in a good shift in combat. When it comes to removal however he is pretty easy to answer and usually results in you going behind, all be it by a small amount, in value and/or tempo. The low cost is deceptive, you are not only paying 3 mana for this you are committing to some upfront where things can change. Often playing this for one then two is worse than just paying three in one go would be. Cost splitting is usually good but on this dude it inconvenient. He has at least been a fun, interesting, and popular card which feels like a big win for something I am only giving a 6 on the power scale too. Pretty happy with that. Real flavour win too. It is a tribute to a good friends WoW main, and a damn good one at that!
Riverside Woodland
Robust Corpse (cut)
Power 3
Design 3
This is just a support tool and there isn't really anything that it supports. The various sacrifice decks simply don't need bodies this cheaply, they have more time to be able to invest in more powerful cards. There are metas where this would have seen play and been really useful. A kind of Stitcher's Supplier for the sac decks. I was outranged when green got Young Wolf and black got Butcher's Ghoul. Wolf in black would have gotten so much play back then while the Wolf got barely any. I think we are past a black Young Wolf being good in any cube these days. To make this good I probably need it to be a 2/2 that does you a damage or two when it enters, or perhaps just one each upkeep. A Carnophage with persist? Seems fine at best but still lacking an archetype that wants it. Black is not a beatdown colour in many cubes, the homemade one being no exception at present. If I try and push a black aggro archetype then I might try and rework this into a beater more than pure support card. Alternatively should the format speed up a bunch then this might just become good enough as an early defensive play to make his way back into the fold.
Rock Charm (cut)
Power 3
Design 4
A load of situational red effects rolled into one her. Your Fling, combat trick and Recoup... Overall this was way too cross purpose and aimless to get any love. This is a really narrow modal card from the get go and it is in a format that doesn't seem in desperate need of more modal cards. I am reasonably happy with the flavour, the power, and the way I managed to get so many otherwise unused red effects crammed onto one card. An achievement if not a good or useful card in the format!
Rockfall Valley (retuning)
Power 5
Design 4
This is pretty rough to block but can be chumped real effectively. Overall this is worse than Treetop Village. The colour intensity it requires, combined with the colour output it lacks for a body that is ultimately less threatening. This is fine, it does the job OK, but it isn't quite packing the punch you need from such a demanding card. This asks a lot before giving anything back. It isn't a pick that contributes to playables. It doesn't really provide much coloured mana while requiring two colours itself. And for all that all it offers is to one day exchange mediocre attacks for mana. I'll slap another toughness on this but it isn't making it enough better I don't think.
Rockshock Trooper
Power 6
Design 8
Clean and on point. Love this little guy. Just a Shock on legs. This is real fair but has a bunch of nice synergies. It is a cheap interactive card too which makes for better games. Somewhat surprised we have yet to see this card for real. Just such an obvious free win.
Rohirrim
Power 7
Design 6
I wanted to dabble in making snowball cards that were not oppressive. This was my attempt to make a fairer Luminarch Aspirant. This has to be getting stuck in exposing it to more risk, and it is a bit slower to get going thus not being quite so hard paced off the bat. It is not the most exciting of designs but it does tick the boxes set for it. The power is about right and it does apply pressure in the way that I wanted. This is an important tool for the aggro decks to have access too and this is a fine card at doing just that so unless I create something more suitable, fun and interesting this is staying put for now.
Root Charm (cut)
Power 4
Design 6
While this is certainly one of the more widely useful Charms it still felt a little aimless and wound up seeing minimal play. When people can't see why they are playing a card they tend not to. The removal and the fixing both come with reasonable penalties making this a card where the baseline is going to be somewhat of a Raise Dead. Pongify for two or Manamorphose with card draw replaced by investigate are pretty niche effects. Cards like this have a habit of clogging things up, you hand, your mana, the game in general. I really like how this looks and feels but cannot escape the fact it simply isn't at all required.
Rogbhort, King of all Kher (reworked)
Power 5
Design 7
This is one of the only cards I reworked simply with a colour change. This guy is now black red and feels a lot more useful there. In red green this guy is low impact and low synergy. A simple move to black and all the sac stuff keys off Rogbhort nicely and he becomes a draw towards doing stuff. In green he was just puzzling, like, it feels like a two mana walker should be good but what am I am doing with it and why? We saw this guy out of place and not doing a lot a bit too much in green. Rogbhort is a whole lot less powerful than Wrenn and Six but is at least sufficiently more powerful than Tibalt - the only other true two mana walkers out there. While the reworked version is no more powerful it is a lot more suitable and supports what black and red get upto a lot more so than it did in Gruul. As ssuch it is performing reasonably and getting enough play. It is also a walker that isn't oppressive which makes for a nice change!
New reworked version;
Roraima
Power 8
Design 6
Rosetta Stone (cut)
Power 3
Design 7
I love cards like this but I rather over did the wheel spinners and the do nothings! I thought this was a cute take on a Serum Visions come brother's Bauble. I just appreciate that without significant artifact synergies this isn't getting a look into a cube of any reasonable power level and consistency. This is a card you play when you lack playables, when your deck has other serious issues, or when it empowers everything else. Just playing this by itself and you are paying 2 mana for a scry or a card for a scry and those are bad rates.
Rotmonger
Power 7
Design 7
Captain threat. This came out well. The escape feels Golgari and rot flavours. It works well with you wanting to close a game with this dude. The combo of trample and deathtouch also make this an absolute fiend to combat with. In a fair trade you are taking a load of trample damage, and if you have to gang block to take him down the whole gang are dying in the process and still likely leaving you with a bit of a slap in the face. I was attempting to invoke the feel of the beloved classic Spiritmonger without caring to replicate and mechanical aspects.
Rousing Incantation
Power 7
Design 7
White is probably the most starved of card quality effects in all forms of magic, my homemade cube being no exception. As such this seems one of the more popular of the Incantation cycle. White is very well able to afford a mana for the sake of consistency being so well equipped to control tempo. Consistency is something all decks want, this symmetrical cycle has been a really interesting way of gauging the demand, and thus lack of supply, for such things. It does occur to me that these are not overly printable in real magi as they could simply function as tutor cards in combo decks quite effectively.
Rubbish Dump (cut)
Power 3
Design 4
Nice in theory but over priced to use. Even if the ability was just a black to activate the card would be real slow. I will give it that buff but I am confident that without some graveyard based archetype to really take advantage or the discard this still won't pull its weight in cube. The curse of the utility lands in cube like formats!
Ruby Dragon (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
One of the 2nd print run cards aimed at padding out the previously lacking top end. This overshot a bit and put a lot of work in. Almost always used in blitz mode for a somewhat free six damage. I like how this plays and feels but want to tone it down a little. It is not so much that it is over powered, but that it is a fairly low cost include, certainly as far as six drops go. pretty sure this will just become a 5/5 that gives 5 treasure with everything else the same. While this looks and feels like a dragon, really it plays a lot more like a stealth fee Lava Axe.
Ruham Efreet (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
One of the most impactful land cycling dorks. Lifelink is one of those abilities that has wider implications and in many matchups will make this a must answer card. Most of the rest are just stats, there is a bit more dimension to this as other game resources are involved. This has been made a 3/3 to get the power level more on point but is otherwise fine. Plays well and and does the job it is designed for nicely too. These cards are effectively the sac lands of my cube and do a lot of work.
Rummaging Rager (cut)
Power 4
Design 7
I love the way this works. This is a signpost card of my design where there is internal tension on simple mechanics. I love the way this feels red, it must do a thing and it must do it now! Sadly I did not support yard payoffs enough nor made a format lacking in consistency sufficiently to put much demand on looters. This would be fine in many other cubes but sadly it is not pulling its weight in mine. It feels wrong to buff this, it has plenty going on. I guess I could make it a looter rather than a rummager, or just a rummage dork that becomes card draw when hellbent, either of those might be reasonable buffs. More plausibly however I will just work on better graveyard synergies such that this becomes a desirable support card. Absolutely I will be putting thing back in the cube as soon as it feels like more looters are needed rather than working on designing different or better cards.
