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
Ghaltra and Mavren 2
Very very undercost as far as stats go but without flash, ward (insert other protective things), or haste this seven drop is a non-starter. One attack is likely as good as game and two should always be. This is a long way from a Craw Giant but a Terror doesn't think so... Sadly this is just a card sat in dead design space, it is too powerful, more powerful than it needs to be and yet it is still basically unplayable due to the risks of playing such big cards. You could add a nice little bit of ward to this and halve the power and toughness and the end result would at least be a sensible card.
Omnath, Locus of All 6
Love the casting cost design but dislike the overly wordy ability that should likely just be draw a card. I get that they want to add mana with Omnath but I'm sure they could have found a way more elegant than this if they were that desperate. All told this is a fine enough card. It is at least drawing a card a turn which is powerful. Add some mana onto that and we are looking dangerously good. This is not as good as broken Omnath as it is not quite so easy to trigger but it is surprisingly close given how format damaging the last one was! This would get play in my cube but mostly just when the other Omnath was already being played. One of those good enough to join the party cards but not good enough to start one. When you have multicoloured cards so good that they drag whole archetypes into the meta they are more than capable of carrying some powerful but otherwise intensely gold cards with them. This is a pretty good backup Omnath and serves as a kind of redundancy which is nice. I can see this getting enough play but it really will not be on its own merits. Without the other cards pushing the 4 and 5 colour decks this card wouldn't get too much of a look in. Cards that don't deserve to be there on their own merits but do get the requisite play always feel a bit impostery and don't sit so well with me.
Katilda and Leir 2*
Always be wary of cards that improve one type off the back of another. For this to even start to consider being good you need instant/sorcery cards in the bin and humans being cast. Impossible to maximize in the way you want to. Further to that both effects are ones needing a mana investment. If you play a dork for mana you may then spend more mana and get a spell. Thanks. I'll enjoy that in ten turns when I have spare mana.... Even as a commander this is going to be quite hard to do good things with.
Faerie Mastermind 6
This is a fine card but one that is not all that well suited to my midrangy and tempo focused cube. This is a 2/1 which is pretty limp. Easily answered and poo in combat. It might draw you the odd card here and there if you hold it in hand with mana up. You can sink late game mana into it to draw even more but mostly this is a small flash flier. Despite impressive power I do not see this lasting in my cube although combo and control heavy ones will likely get very keen for this.
Archangel Elspeth 6
This is remarkably similar to Knight-Errant, ten years ago that might have been impressive. These days it is not quite enough. Buffing and sending to the skies is nice as a means to finish and making a 1/1 token is mediocre but at least on theme and always a proactive thing to do. Archangel has a reasonably reachable ultimate but it is situational and often not all that game winning. As far as reach goes I would prefer to have a Maul of the Skyclaves. As far as threatening planeswalkers I think I would rather all of the white four drop walkers I run in my cube in any kind of deck. That is not the endorsement we we looking for and so I am fairly happy sending this one directly to the bench. I would even class this as slightly better than Knight-Errant but it is sufficiently slight that I am more than happy with neither. Much as I have no levied this with any sort of praise I will be testing it as it is simply a bit suspicious how weak it looks and likely needs a bit of delving into why! It might well just turn out that it is really hart for most decks to beat this just getting keen with the -2 ability.
Wrenn and Realmbreaker 7
Curious walker that feels almost more of quality of life card than anything else! Also likely a three mana walker that is better later in the game than on turn three for the most part. Perfect fixing, recursion and an Anticipate effect. Wrenn gets you into the midgame in style with land drops, curve plays and the right colours. The ultimate is a nice value one, it should add inevitability but it isn't winning on the spot or anything. The +1 applies a bit of pressure or defence but it is costly to use defensively and at least inconvenient to use offensively. You cannot usefully use it very often on the turn you drop Wrenn as well making it much less appealing to use than the -2 when on curve. Mostly it reminds me of Narset, Parter of Veils, trading a disruptive element for more utility, longevity, and threat! This is certainly a pretty fair looking card but it feels like it might be a bit too much to turn down. It is just quite hard for this to be a bad card.
Invasion of Zendikar // Awakened Skyclave 2
Overall the package here is pretty impressive. Explosive Vegetation isn't a bad card in a general sense and sticking a meaty 4/4 on it substantially improve it! This doesn't even need much damage to flip it making it more likely you can actually get at the 4/4. Even so, this is not for cube for many reasons. Firstly, Explosive Vegetation isn't and so we are off to a bad start. That is the floor here. Even three mana double ramp cards are not making it into my cube. Late ramp just isn't where cube is at. I am not going to play a poorly suited and over priced card for the chance at some good value free perks if I am already winning. I can see abusing this card with flicker effects, I cannot see anyone putting effort into flipping this. Impressive how much card they can put into one of these battles and still have it look so weak. I guess "suspend ?" is a bit awkward!
Norn's Inquisitor 5
Normally this is the kind of cute utility support card I am all over. This is two bodies in one, it is super cheap, the stats are reasonable etc. Ii is like a Blade Splicer but with some cost splitting options. Overall however I think this is just slightly too inefficient on the mana for what is really just bodies and stats. It is real close but without a lot of other phyrexians that transform getting into cube this isn't quite at the needed power level.
Kami of Whispered Hopes 2
Cute build around card but I suspect we have enough of these effects for any 40 card deck now so this is likely just an EDH card. You don't much need the mana generation from this badboy in the kinds of decks you want the counters enhanced. At which point you have an over cost and vulnerable card in your deck.
Halo Forager 6
Well now this is a card. Refreshing to see this printed in the uncommon slot as well. So basically this is a Snapcaster Mage that trades flash for flying and gains a power and a mana cost. Clearly a worse Snapcaster as it is harder to cast, is slower to come on line, can't be used on countermagic, and is just weaker tempo. It does have a couple of upsides on Snappy. It can help you fix which is likely irrelevant in most cases but it is something. You can also abuse the likes of Ancestral Vision and other suspend cards without a mana cost. That is rather naughty, if a little narrow for cube. The most applicable and subtle aspect that this might be better than Snapcaster for is simply that a 3/1 flyer is a lot more of a useful body. Snappy is often a chump and does very little. Forager can apply pressure, it can kill walkers. Basically it needs answering in some way and so does act like much more of a 2 for 1 than Snappy tends to do. This card is fine. It is well suited to cube but it might be a little on the gold side to quite make the cut.
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