Top Ten Cards of 2014

I had remembered Khans being more impactful than the quantity of relevant cards from this year suggests. I think while numbers are relatively low, the impact of a few of the big names significantly changed the cube landscape and made it feel like a bigger year. Product-released-wise, 2014 was a huge year with three normal sets (Journey into Nyx, Born of the Gods, and Khans of Tarkir), a base set (M15), Commander 2014 and Conspiracy as well. Given the relatively large number of cards and the relatively few of them that are cube relevant, I think we can actually call 2014 a fairly low powered year, at least for a recent one. Regardless of all that, I remember this year, specifically Khans, most fondly.  Here are some of those cards that are cube relevant, before we get to the top ten;

Song of Dryads

Malicious Affliction

Mana Confluence

Dictate of Heliod

Stoke the Flames

Bloodsoaked Champion

Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Chandra, Pyromaster

Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Murderous Cut

Nissa, Worldwaker

Myriad Landscape

Hallowed Spiritkeeper

Temple Cycle

Abzan Charm

Altar of the Brood

Anafenza, the Foremost

Arcane Lighthouse

Bassara Tower Archer

Become Immense

Brago, King Eternal

Brain Maggot

Clever Impersonator

Coercive Portal

Containment Priest

Daretti, Scrap Savant

Defiant Strike

Doomwake Giant

Dualcaster Mage

Eidolon of Blossoms

Eidolon of the Great Revel

Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

Garruk, Apex Predator

Gnarled Scarhide

Grim Haruspex

Hall of Triumph

Hardened Scales

Jeskai Ascendancy

Jeskai Charm

Mantis Rider

Mardu Charm

Necromantic Selection

Nyx Weaver

Pain Seer

Return to the Ranks

Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Savage Knuckleblade

Seeker of the Way

Sidisi, Brood Tyrant

Seige Rhino

Sultai Charm

Teferi, Termporal Archmage

Temur Charm

Titania, Protector of Argoth

Waste Not

10. Dack Fayden

Dack is a bit less common to see (being gold) but he is relatively high impact on the cube. He is so swing-y when he can steal something strong that he is one of the more played-around cards. You walk into Dack and you probably throw. Dack is unlike any other Walker – firstly, he is no threat all by himself, (well, not unless you can realistically expect to mill out your opponent by forcing them to loot (It has happened!)). Secondly, because he is so polar - he is playable, but low key when he has no potential targets to steal. He’s fine when he just loots, he’s good when he only uses the +1, but he also makes your opponents play differently. He is game-winning when he opens up with a Steal Artifact, even if this is as minor as a Talisman or Terrarion. With it being steal rather than destroy, the impact is generally more than doubled, particularly in the early game. Resource development games have an exponential scaling (as a general rule) and so minor edges gained early get quite out of hand, over time. If it is devastating to lose a cheap support artefact, imagine how filthy it is to take a Wurmcoil Engine! All in all, one of the biggest swings that occurs in my cube, with a casual three-for-one into the mix, you being up a Walker and a thing, and them being down the thing. 

9.   Creeperhulk

Not super-exciting, but pretty effective. This is basically the card you play when you want to play Craterhoof Behemoth, but can't reasonably expect to get near eight mana in any sort of useful time frame. In any creature based deck, if you get to untap with a Creeperhulk you have likely won. Failing that, you should be pretty ahead, or forcing your opponent into acts of desperation. Creeperhulk is fairly punchy just on its own, being a decent 5/5 in stats complete with that key trample. The one downside of the card is that if you curve him out and walk into removal, you are typically falling behind due to the relative cheapness of said removal. Creeperhulk has no bonus value to offer on cast, on entering play, or leaving it, nor does it have any protection beyond the reasonable health pool. A Doom Blade or Swords to Plowshares see him off cleanly and efficiently, and that is the danger. Fortunately, in a creature-heavy deck you, will expect to force that kind of removal a lot earlier on three drops. You can also top deck Creeperhulk late, with seven or even nine mana, and get a bit of that Craterhoof feel. Ultimately this is a good finisher and nothing more - it is OK on its own and offers a lot of reach, but it’s not a value card or a utility one, although it is sufficiently good at its main job for that to not matter at all. The drawback it has is akin to that of Baneslayer Angel's and if you can work around it, then you are in the winning position. Typically, this will be the last threat you play, so as to best avoid removal and best position yourself to use the game closing power of the card. 

8.   Courser of Kruphix

Green has had so many great-value three drops printed since Courser that he no longer seems quite as nuts as he once was. When this came out in 2014, it was the absolute business. The perfect all-inclusive midrange and control dork. Despite the heavy defensive leaning, Courser cropped up in all sorts of more tempo-driven decks, like Jund and Zoo, simply for being so far above the curve. Good stats, lifegain, ongoing card advantage… what’s not to love? Sure, he might concede some information, but you can also turn that drawback into a perk with sneaky mindgames, or simply shuffle effects timed well. Courser is no less great than it was, it just has more comparable alternatives that rather reduce the urgency on having this in your list. With punchier-value three drops like Tireless Tracker and Jadelight Ranger to choose from, Courser now tends to find play in the midrange and control decks more exclusively, and that is why I could only have him at the bottom end of this list. If I had done this list at the time, this would have been a lot higher. 

7.   Goblin Rabblemaster

I misread this in my initial review of it in 2014 and thought it produced 1/1s only when it attacked. I ran with that assumption, because that would have been pretty appropriate for the era. When I saw it getting some play, I was confused and properly re-read the card… and instantly added it to the cube. Rabblemaster has found itself in a wide array of archetypes. It might look aggressive, but it has plenty of applications in slower decks. The card gets out of hand really fast, as it needs an answer and will often leave some residual value, even when removed. Rabblemaster is the bar I measure the dangerous three drop threats by, and little comes close! It is cards like Rabblemaster that make uninteractive decks need to be exceptional. Most decks are pretty well equipped with answer cards these days, and it is cards like Rabblemaster that make this such a necessity. It is not too hard to mitigate, just a couple of 2/2s will be more than enough,but things get well out of hand if no mitigation is available. Rabblemaster really punishes, while still having an impressive floor. It applies a lot of damage very quickly and it manages to go both wide and tall. Often, they have to block the Rabblemaster itself due to the high damage it represents, and so they trade their big thing with your small thing while all the little goblins live and nibble away. Goblin Bombardment decks as well as tribal decks also love Rabblemaster for his cheap ongoing token production.

6.   Flesh Carver

One of the big, underrated cube cards out there. Mostly this is down to it not being appropriate for eternal formats and not being legal in other competitive ones. It was never in a draft format. It isn't exciting for EDH, either – really, this guy only shines in cube. It usually takes some dominance in another popular format before people really tune into a cards potential in cube and Carver has never had such attention. So why is he so good? He just does it all, in a safe and efficient way. Carver is a decent tempo buffer against aggression, providing a couple of OK blockers and a tough time of clearing the path entirely. He makes a planeswalker safer than most other three drops do in an average cube setting. He also threatens planeswalkers in the midgame and players as well, when the time comes. Evasion combined with the ability to grow in size is pretty scary. It is relatively safe investing in growing Carver and pretty easy to make him bigger than anything that can block him. He is also nice and safe to most mass removal and allows for a little more extension than most threats. Carver has some of the best reach you can find on a three drop. He wins more games than the high tempo threats like Ahn Crop Crasher, say. The same is true for meaty powerful cards like Brimaz as well, but none have the staying power or ability to force through damage that Carver does. When Flesh Carver is holding down the fort against aggression, or winning the game for you, he is providing powerful utility and a useful sac outlet.

5.   Satyr Wayfinder

This little dork seems to just be everywhere at the moment. There is just such a depth of things that interact with graveyards, in basically all colours and archetypes, that a nice bit of controlled self mill does a lot of work. Two mana for a 1/1 body and a land is a nice cheap two for one, albeit a very low impact one. It gets some presence on the board and it gives you some consistency going forwards. Sylvan Ranger is a more reliable two for one and a more reliable fixer, but it offers no synergies, doesn't find exciting lands and requires a mild degree of building around (in that you need to include targets). You barely ever see Ranger anymore and it was never that exciting of a card. Wayfinder, however, is pretty busted! It is a pretty good starting point for a card and then it has so much scaling power. I have seen it be pretty filthy value when it flips three cards that do things from the bin and a land. Literally better than an Ancestral Recal (once, but still). Just reducing a delve card by 3 is more than enough to make Wayfinder great. It is the selection aspects, more than the value or tempo ones, that I have found most useful. It turns out that most colours have access to some recursion tools, which are already pretty desirable in the singleton formats. Card quality, dig and tutoring have historically been the preserve of blue and black,but increasing quantities of playable self mill and recursion tools has allowed all the colours to get involved to some extent. I often think of Wayfinder as giving you an extra Anticipate with suspend that concludes when you use your recursion effects. While most colours do now have some forms of dig, tutoring and card quality of their own, being able to supplement it with self mill and recursion is a huge help and has opened up the cube amazingly. Control and midrange options are all over the place. Not so long ago at all, the idea of any red deck that wasn't racing was a joke - either go combo, go aggro or go home. Now, though, slow red decks are great. Wayfinder isn't itself playing a huge part in red having a wider range, but Wayfinder is the poster boy for good self mill in cube. After the good one mana ramp cards, Wayfinder is the most played green card in my cube. 

4.   Council's Judgement

A pretty dull card and a pretty fair one. Three mana is a lot to pay for a sorcery speed spot removal card. Council's Judgement is not really a card for getting you ahead, it is a get out of jail free card. The aspects of the card that carry it are simply that it is one of the very few catch-all cards. It will not kill man lands and utility lands, or I guess Viashano Sandstalker! It will however kill everything else, from Purphoros to Thrun, True-Name to Darksteel Colossus. No form of    protection actually protects against Council's Judgement, short of not being in play anymore! While that may not be great card design in a standard format, it is fantastic in cube. It ensures there are counter-play options and that leads to a healthy format. It is a card that makes a deck look worse on paper, but in practice it increases your win percentage overall and leads to better games. I rarely leave it out of a white deck and never did prior to Cast Out getting printed. 

3.   Dig Through Time

I was super hot for this card when I first saw it. So hot for it that it blinded me to other good things! I was missing the Fact or Fiction days of card draw that planeswalkers had slowly made obsolete and in Dig Through Time I saw powerful card advantage that was playable in all the ways Fact or Fiction no longer was. Not only was Dig Through Time playable, but it is oh-so-powerful too. It is better than two Impulses and yet it is one card, not two! It can be played for the same amount of mana, as well! It feels like a tutor in cube, with seven cards being a large chunk of libraries in forty card decks. Dig is highly desirable for combo and control decks, while also getting plenty of play in aggro and midrange, as well. Drawing cards is never bad, certainly at a one for one rate with mana paid. Selection on cards is also never bad! The instant speed of Dig also drastically reduces the onus on powering out your delve. Paying four for an EoT Dig is totally fine, and it is still better than Fact or Fiction!

2.  Treasure Cruise

Not quite Ancestral Recall, but certainly the closest we have come to the original busted draw spell. You need to have some support for this, but it is all good cards, all pretty painless and easy to do and oh-so-well worth it! I underrated this on release, because I was in the mindset that only control and combo decks really want to invest in raw card advantage cards. Obviously there is a point at which a card is just too powerful to pass up on, despite how off theme it is, much like Courser of Kruphix in aggro decks. Suffice it to say, Treasure Cruise is well past that point. Sure, card draw might be the opposite of tempo, but it is never really ‘off theme’, as such. Original affinity decks ran Thoughtcast, after all. So yeah, every deck that can expect to cast this for one within a half reasonable time frame plays this. The only reason they might not is because they don't have it, or they already have too many other cards taxing and using the graveyard. Or, I guess they could just be wrong! Delve saturation is the only really bad thing about all the bonkers good delve cards from 2014. I have had at least four big delve spells in decks before, but I never expect to cast more than three, usually only two, and even then I will have built to fuel the delve somewhat more than usual. Delve might be cheap, but they are not super early and each tends to reset your progress. I did Cruise turn two the last time I played cube, but I had over supported my self mill, I lost that game and most of my matches. Much as you can't overload on delve effects in a deck, it isn't too problematic for Cruise as it is the best of them on average and tends to oust the competition. 

1.   Monastery Swiftspear

What a dork. No downside, just pure upside. This might well have still been a premium red one drop as a 1/1 or without haste. The latter, we can somewhat support with the subsequent printing of Soul-Scar Mage. I certainly rate Soul-Scar as the second best red one mana beater in my cube, but I can see the arguments against that while I will not hear of any suggestion Swiftspear isn't the number one. She has great scaling and the cards that support it well are also powerful cards. You can play Swiftspear in most aggressive decks and it is rarely bad. Even with practically zero triggers, your opponent will need to respect that you might have some which means Swiftspear will trumps 2/2s and even some key cards that are bigger. Scare off that 4/3 with your ferocious 1/2! So while you could technically argue that Goblin Guide was better in a vacuum, in practice it never is. I don't just rate this as better than Goblin Guide and thus better than any other red one drop beater, I rate this as the best one drop beater of all time. Keep your static, narrow Nacatls, keep your needy Delver of Secrets, your sac land fueled Lynx and your tribe locked Parish Champions! Swiftspear is not only more powerful than those cards, but it is also much more insteresting and interactive. It is rare for something to be at the top of a pile of things and actually be a well designed card. Sure, it could be toned down, but it isn't oppressive as it is, just as good as it can be.